Adding salt to table meals is linked to a previous death, according to a study of 500,000 middle-aged Britons.
The researchers found that always adding salt to food makes men’s life expectancy lose more than two years and a year and a half for women. This does not include seasonings during the cooking process.
The study did not definitively rule out other factors, such as salt consumption as an indicator of a generally less healthy lifestyle, but the team behind the work said the evidence was convincing enough that the people should consider avoiding seasoning their meals.
“To my knowledge, our study is the first to assess the relationship between salt addition to foods and premature death,” said Professor Lu Qi of Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans, who directed the work. “Even a modest reduction in sodium intake, adding less or no salt to foods on the table, is likely to have substantial health benefits, especially when achieved in the general population.”
The findings were based on research involving more than 500,000 participants in the UK Biobank study, which were followed for an average of nine years. When they joined the study between 2006 and 2010, they were asked, using a touch screen questionnaire, if they added salt to their food and how often they did so.
Salt intake is difficult to accurately control because many processed foods contain high levels of salt and direct measurement by urine testing does not necessarily provide an indicative snapshot of overall intake. Approximately 70% of sodium intake in Western populations comes from processed and prepared foods, with 8-20% derived from the salt added to the table. However, adding salt is a very good indicator of a person’s preference for salty-tasting foods, so the team focused their analysis on that measure.
Compared to those who never or rarely added salt, those who always seasoned their food had a 28% higher risk of dying prematurely. At age 50, men and women who always added salt had a life expectancy of 2.3 years and 1.5 years shorter respectively.
Other factors that could affect outcomes were considered, such as age, sex, ethnicity, deprivation, body mass index, smoking, alcohol intake, physical activity, diet and medical conditions such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease.
Professor Annika Rosengren, a senior researcher at the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, who did not participate in the research, said that while some health tips were simple, there is no downside to quitting smoking. for salt there is an optimal level, that is, it cannot be completely eliminated from the diet. It is difficult to identify the “sweet spot” in terms of health for any individual.
“So far, what the collective evidence on salt seems to indicate is that healthy people who consume what constitute normal levels of ordinary salt should not worry too much about their salt intake,” he said.
For this group, counteracting salt intake with a diet rich in fruits and vegetables should be a priority. However, people at high risk for heart disease should probably be reduced. “Not adding extra salt to already prepared foods is one way to achieve this,” he said.