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Salt - Is your food full of it? |
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Eating too much salt is bad for your health because it can raise your blood pressure and having a high blood pressure triples your chances of heart disease and stroke. Adults should eat no more than 6g (equivalent to a teaspoon) per day. Children should have even less. Most, around 75%, of the salt we consume is already in the foods we eat.
One of the easiest ways to cut down on salt is to compare foods and choose those that are lower in salt whenever you can. But if you know what to look for, you can start choosing foods that are lower in salt. Check the label to see how much salt is in the food per 100g. Then you can work out if the food is high, medium or low in salt, using the following scale.
LOW – a healthier choice would be between 0g – 0.3g
MEDIUM – this range is ok most of the time 0.4g – 1.5g
HIGH – eat small amounts, or just occasionally 1.6g and above
For more advice and information, visit http://www.salt.gov.uk |
