Irish consuming unhealthy levels of salt in diet

IRISH PEOPLE are consuming unacceptably high levels of salt, a new study has found.

The study, commissioned by North-South food safety body safefood, found that dietary salt intake in the Republic of Ireland is well in excess of the “tolerable upper limit” of six grams per day set out by health professionals.

The results show that 86 per cent of men and 67 per cent of women are consuming salt well above the upper daily limit, with men ingesting an average of 10.4g of salt per day and women 7.4g.

Commenting on the findings, Dr Cliodhna Foley-Nolan, director of human health and nutrition at safefood, said: “High dietary salt intake is strongly associated with high blood pressure and the pain and suffering related to stroke and cardiac disease.”

“These high salt intakes are also associated with obesity in men and women, and the findings show that men in particular need to cut down on their salt intake.”

The research, titled Salt: hard to shake, led by Prof Ivan Perry and Dr Gemma Browne in conjunction with the department of epidemiology and public health at University College Cork (UCC), also revealed that there had been no decline in salt intake in the Irish population over the past two decades.

Dr Foley-Nolan said that, while we were eating more food of all descriptions and had a higher calorie intake generally, it was processed foods that contained the most salt.

“Salt is a cheap and effective flavouring in many processed foods. Many foods containing salt do not taste salty.

“Some 34 per cent of the salt ingested [in our diet] comes from cereals, bread and potatoes, 22 per cent from meat, fish and poultry, 14 per cent from soups, sauces and spreads, and 8 per cent from snacks.

“It goes deeper than just the salt cellar,” she said. “Salt added at the table accounts for just 10-15 per cent of our intake.”

The study’s methodology, described by safefood as the “gold standard” in estimating dietary salt intake, sampled the urine of 600 individuals of varying ages and locations over a 24-hour period; a further 1,200 people were randomly tested.

Safefood has launched a workplace salt awareness campaign designed to highlight the hidden salt in processed foods.