Ons voedsel is nog steeds veel te zout.*
Volgens de Wereld gezondheidsorganisatie (WHO) is zowel de inname als de aanbevelingen door de verschillende overheden van (keuken)zout overwegend veel te hoog. De aanbeveling van de WHO is max. 5 gram per dag ter voorkoming van ziektes in het bijzonder hart- en vaatziektes. België schrijft wel max. 8,75 gram voor in Japan zelfs max. 10 gram. Ook zijn er nog veel landen die niets voorschrijven.
Report
To World Health Organisation Says World's Food Is Still Far Too Salty
The
world's food is still far too salty and too many countries are still ignoring
the World Health Organisation's (WHO) guidelines on what should be a healthy
level of salt in our daily diet according to Professor Franco Cappuccio of the
University of Warwick's Warwick Medical School.
In his just published report to the WHO Forum on Reducing Salt Intake in
Populations, he points that few countries are following the recommendation of
the WHO technical report on primary prevention of essential hypertension and the
joint WHO/FAO report on diet, nutrition and the prevention of chronic diseases
which state that the intake goal for salt should be less than 5 grams a day.
Some countries have developed their own higher targets for salt intake while
others do not currently have any national recommendation on salt.
Professor noted that most European countries still recommended intakes in excess
of WHO's recommendations or no real advice at all. One of the highest being
Belgium for which the recommendation is less than 8.75 grams a day (though in
Portugal it is less than 5g/day). In Greece and Hungary, only general dietary
recommendations are available (e.g. "avoid salt and foods rich in salt").
The UK recommendation is for less than 6g/day. While this is still slightly
higher than the WHO recommendation Professor Cappuccio notes that the UK also
has one of world's most active and effective publicity campaigns to try and get
people to reduce their salt intake.
The situation is worse in Asia. Here Professor Cappuccio noted that nutritional
recommendations were found for four countries and they ranged from less than 5
g/day in Singapore to less than 10 g/day of salt in Japan. In the African
continent, only two countries, Nigeria and South Africa, have developed dietary
guidelines regarding salt intake.
Things are a little better in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the US which
share the target of less than 6 g/day of salt though this is still above WHO
guidelines. However in the USA there is a specific recommendation of less than 4
g/day for special groups. In South America, a few countries have developed
general advice (such as "reduce salt intake", "moderation in salt
intake") but Brazil is the only country with a nutritional recommendation (actually
the same as the WHO target of less than 5 g/day of salt).
Professor Cappuccio also noted that Iodine deficiency is another worldwide
public health problem and the main strategy to control IDD is universal salt
iodization. Consequently, many countries include in their national dietary
guidelines the recommendation to ensure the use of iodized salt, with obvious
potentially conflicting public health messages on salt usage. He believes that
there is an urgent need to re-visit this policy.
Professor Cappuccio says:
"Efforts and commitments to reduce salt intake are still not a reality in
many countries and recommendations must result in action, which should be
tailored to the national context. Voluntary, as well as statutory initiatives
are thus necessary. The lack of policies and/or recommendations to reduce salt
intake in African and Latin American countries demonstrates regional differences
in the work achieved to date to tackle this risk factor for cardiovascular
diseases." (April 2007)
(Opm. Zelf kan men wellicht wel in de gaten
houden hoeveel zout men inneemt. Doch de problemen komen vaak als men
regelmatig kant en klare voeding koopt of veel uit eten gaat, de hoeveelheden
zullen dan zeker veel te hoog zijn.)