‘Meeting WHO’s sodium recommendations could avert deaths’

Complying with the WHO-recommended levels of sodium intake could avert three lakh deaths due to heart and chronic kidney disease in 10 years, a modelling study by the World Health Organisation has estimated.

High levels of sodium -- an ingredient of salt -- are one of the main dietary risks of death and disability. Packaged foods are a major source of sodium intake in high-income countries, and increasingly becoming so in low- and middle-income countries.

However, researchers, including those from The George Institute for Global Health, Hyderabad, said that India has no national strategy for sodium reduction despite people consuming double the recommended intake and increasing amounts of packaged foods.

The WHO recommends under two grams of sodium a day, which is roughly the same as less than a teaspoon or five grams of salt a day.

Published in The Lancet Public Health journal, the results suggested substantial health gains and cost savings within the first 10 years of compliance, including averting 17 lakh cardiovascular events, such as heart attacks and strokes, and seven lakh new chronic kidney disease cases, along with savings of USD 800 million.

The authors said that the results from the modelling make a strong case for India to mandate the implementation of WHO's sodium benchmarks, especially as people are increasingly consuming packaged food.

Slashing sodium intake in the population by 30 per cent by 2025 is one of nine global targets recommended by WHO for the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases.

Countries, including the UK, Argentina and South Africa, have shown that setting targets regarding sodium content in packaged foods along with engaging food manufacturers to reformulate sodium to meet the targets, can effectively lower levels across packaged foods, and thereby reduce intake in the population, the authors said.

In India, few interventions address the issue of consuming high levels of sodium, they said.

Launched in 2018 by the Food Safety and Standard Authority of India under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the current national initiative, 'Eat Right India', aims to educate people about healthy eating, including cutting down on sodium, the researchers said.

However, how adopting sodium targets for packaged foods could potentially impact intake across the country's population was not known, they said.