LONDON – Sprinkling salt substitutes on your meals could add years to your life, according to new research. A global study found that choosing a seasoning other than salt reduces the risk of premature death from cardiovascular disease or any cause by more than 10 percent.
They also reduce heart attacks and strokes by 11 percent. Consuming too much salt can cause clotting, cutting off blood supply to major organs. Salt substitutes taste just like the real thing and are widely available in supermarkets.
They also contain added potassium and less sodium, which protect against high blood pressure, according to the international team.
“The magnitude of cardiovascular protection provided is likely to be determined by the magnitude of the drop in blood pressure,” the study authors write in the journal Heart.
“It seems likely that the blood pressure-mediated beneficial effects of salt replacement on clinical outcomes will accrue across a wide range of populations without adverse effects.”
“These findings are unlikely to reflect chance and support the adoption of salt substitutes in clinical practice and public health policy as a strategy to reduce dietary sodium intake, increase dietary potassium intake, reduce blood pressure and prevent major cardiovascular events,” the researchers added in a press release.
How useful are blood pressure surrogates?
The findings come from the results of 21 clinical trials involving nearly 30,000 people in Europe, the Western Pacific region, the Americas and Southeast Asia. Salt substitutes reduced blood pressure among all participants.
Overall, systolic (top number) and diastolic (bottom number) readings dropped by 4.61 and 1.61 mm/Hg, respectively. The first reflects the strength of the heart when it pumps and the second when it rests between beats. Major organs are vulnerable to stress if any of the blood pressure numbers are too high.
Each lower 10 percent sodium chloride ratio showed a connection with a greater drop of 1.53 and 0.95 mm/Hg in systolic and diastolic blood pressure, respectively. Nearly half of American adults have high blood pressure, according to the CDC.
Estimates show that about a third of all cases go undiagnosed, and health officials call it the “silent killer” because there are few symptoms.
“Excess dietary sodium and insufficient dietary potassium are well-established causes of high blood pressure,” the team writes. “Randomized trials show that reducing dietary sodium or potassium supplements lower blood pressure.”
“Sodium-reduced and potassium-enriched salt substitutes, in which a proportion of the sodium chloride (NaCl) in normal salt is replaced by potassium chloride (KCl), combine these blood pressure-lowering effects.”
What makes a salt substitute healthy?
Reductions in blood pressure among people using salt substitutes were consistent regardless of geography, age, sex, history of high blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), and levels of initial blood pressure, urinary sodium and potassium. There was no evidence that higher levels of potassium in the diet had harmful effects on health.
Standard sea or table rock salt is practically 100 percent sodium chloride. In substitutes like LoSalt, up to two-thirds of the sodium is replaced with potassium. The salty-tasting mineral is lacking in many people’s diets.
However, the body needs this mineral for healthy muscles and nerves, and for normal blood pressure. Studies have previously linked supplements to low blood pressure. A quarter-teaspoon serving of Lo Salt contains 450 mg of potassium, 23 percent of the daily amount needed for an adult.
Western diets are rich in processed foods that already contain high levels of salt, a habit that has prompted the food industry to switch to low-sodium salt as well.
“Since blood pressure lowering is the mechanism by which salt substitutes confer their cardiovascular protection, the consistent reductions in blood pressure observed make a strong case for the generalizability of the cardiovascular protective effect observed in the SSaSS both outside China and beyond,” the researchers conclude.
South West News Service writer Mark Waghorn contributed to this report.