Cutting Salt in Kids' Diets Reduces Blood Pressure

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Cutting Salt in Kids' Diets Reduces Blood Pressure

 

New UK Study Makes Strong Case for Reducing Salt Content of

Processed and Restaurant Foods, According to CSPI

http://www.cspinet.org/new/200610311.html

 

WASHINGTON—A new study shows that reducing salt intake in children

quickly lowers their blood pressure. If their blood pressure remains

lower, those kids could experience lower rates of heart attacks and

strokes as they age. But according to the nonprofit Center for

Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), makers of popular packaged

and restaurant foods make it virtually impossible for children not

to consume unhealthy levels of salt if they eat them.

 

The study, the first-ever meta-analysis of salt-reduction studies in

children, was conducted by Feng J. He and Graham A. MacGregor at St.

George's University of London and published in the November issue of

the journal Hypertension. It found that curbing salt intake in kids

reduced their systolic and diastolic blood pressures by 1 millimeter

of mercury (mm Hg) each. Those numbers may sound small, but the

authors write that if extended across the population into adulthood,

the lower levels would have " major public health implications in

terms of preventing cardiovascular disease in the future. " High

blood pressure is a major cause of heart attacks and strokes.

 

Given the extremely high sodium content of many processed and

restaurant foods—including many foods designed for and marketed to

children—the chances of lowering kids' blood pressure seem remote

without major intervention from industry and government, according

to CSPI. A normal child aged 4 to 8 typically needs only 1,200

milligrams per day, according to the Institute of Medicine, but the

typical child consumes at least 2,800 per day.

 

" Sodium intake is usually perceived as something that middle-aged

and older people need to be concerned about, " said CSPI executive

director Michael F. Jacobson. " But middle-aged parents should be

equally concerned about the sodium in their kids' diets, since it is

increasingly clear that a child's blood pressure points to where it

will end up in adulthood. "

 

Consider a typical six-year-old's diet. Perhaps the day begins with

Rice Krispies with banana and 1 percent milk. Say lunch is a grilled

cheese sandwich, a cup of Campbell's Goldfish Pasta and Meatballs

soup and another glass of milk. Dinner might be a Chicken Strips

convenience meal from Kid Cuisine and a glass of apple juice. As far

as calories are concerned, that diet's 1,511 is right on target. But

its 3,233 mg of sodium is almost triple what a six-year-old should

get in a day. It's also more than the 1,500 to 2,300 mg of sodium

that adults should consume. (Adults consume at least 3,500 mg per

day.)

 

In contrast, a healthier diet that included oatmeal, milk, and

orange juice for breakfast; a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a

fruit leather, an apple, and milk for lunch; a snack of whole grain

Fig Newtons and milk; and a roast chicken drumstick and mashed sweet

potatoes for dinner only provides 866 mg of sodium. (See how various

sample diets stack up here.)

 

The authors of the Hypertension study also note that the high salt

content of snack food aimed at kids conditions their taste buds to

expect saltier foods as adults.

 

CSPI has been urging the Food and Drug Administration to reduce the

sodium content of processed and restaurant foods for almost 30

years. In 2005, CSPI called on the FDA to regulate salt as a food

additive, as opposed to a " generally recognized as safe, " or GRAS,

ingredient. In June of this year, the American Medical Association

endorsed that call and urged the FDA to work toward a 50-percent

sodium reduction in processed and restaurant foods. Achieving that

reduction would save an estimated 150,000 lives a year.

 

" Approximately 65 million Americans have high blood pressure.

Americans spend more than $15 billion on drugs to lower their blood

pressure. Yet, the FDA is doing virtually nothing to encourage

consumers to reduce their intake or food processors or restaurants

to cut sodium levels in their foods, " according to Jacobson. " It's

bad enough that rates of obesity and diabetes in children have

soared, but we're also putting kids on a path to high blood pressure

and heart disease by including so much salt in their diets. "

 

Officials at the National Institutes of Health wrote a commentary in

Hypertension that stated: " The action needed is to modestly and

persistently reduce salt in the food supply, particularly snack

foods and fast foods, an increasing staple of the diets of children

and youth, as well as many canned and processed foods. "