Salt Awareness Week

This week is Salt Awareness Week, an annual campaign to highlight the need to reduce the salt intake in our diets.

Regularly eating too much salt can increase our risk of developing high blood pressure which is the main cause of strokes, and a major cause of heart attacks. These are the two biggest causes of death around the world.

Reducing salt in our diets is one of the quickest and most effective ways to reduce our blood pressure and improve our health. However, we don’t often realise just how much salt we are eating is already in the food we buy.  

In support of this year’s campaign, we have issued the following statement: 

“Too much of the food we are sold has unnecessarily high levels of salt in, putting increasing numbers of people at risk of developing potentially fatal heart conditions.  

“Healthy food is around three times more expensive than unhealthy options and so, to improve the choice of foods on offer to us, we are calling on the Government to make the reformulation of products to reduce sugar, saturated fat, and salt mandatory, and to regulate how products high in salt are marketed, particularly to children and young people.  

“Unless healthier alternatives become more accessible and affordable, the next generation will grow up to develop a whole host of largely preventable illnesses. Living with these conditions will not only impact them and their families and potentially cut short their lives but will also stop them from working and contributing to society and put even more pressure on our already stretched health and social care services.”