Mandatory Curbs On Salt Reduces Stroke Rate

Cirrhosis And Salt:

Malnutrition is often a problem for people with cirrhosis. One of the liver' s important functions is to help convert food into stored energy, as well as to rid the body of toxins. For these reasons, eating a healthy diet is an important part of treatment for cirrhosis. Your diet should be well-balanced diet with plenty of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Your doctor may also talk with you about proper protein balance, and limiting your fluid and salt intake.

If you have fluid retention, you may be asked to lower the amount of salt you consume, since salt encourages the body to retain water. Remember that lowering your salt intake will involve more than passing up the salt shaker; the foods highest in salt are processed and prepared foods. Examples of such foods are canned meats, soups, and vegetables, crackers, and cold cuts. Eat good amounts of fresh foods because they contain very little sodium.

Source

In The News Today From Australia :

Mandatory curbs on salt boost healthy hearts: study

Regulations forcing food manufacturers to use lower levels of salt would in theory be far more effective for health than voluntary initiatives or dietary advice for consumers, according to new research.

High-salt diets have long been blamed for causing high blood pressure, a potential precursor for heart attacks or stroke.
Investigators in Australia looked at the country's "Tick" programme, under which food manufacturers can use a health-promotion logo on packaging if they volunteer to reduce the product's salt content to safer levels.

The team then calculated the impact on public health if the "Tick" limits were made mandatory.
They also looked at studies into the usefuless of programmes that offer salt advice to the general public and to those at high cardiovascular risk.
The team took into consideration the salt content of bread, margarine and cereals; the tonnage of product sold; the average consumption per head of those products; and the costs of drafting and enforcing legislation.

The "Tick" programme scored highly, reducing ill-health by cardiovascular disease across the Australian population by almost one percent -- more than twice as much as dietary advice -- and at a high cost-effectiveness.

But when measured in terms of the benefits on health, mandatory limits, helping to keep salt intake to below the recommended daily maximum of six grammes per day, could be far more effective, the authors suggested.

Regulations on salt would reduce cardiovascular ill health by 18 percent.
"If corporate responsibility fails, maybe there is an ethical justification for government to step in and legislate," say the authors, led by Linda Cobiac of the School of Population Health at the University of Queensland.

Laws on food content are common in many countries, requiring manufacturers for instance to add iodine to salt and folic acid in cereals.
Cardiovascular disease is the biggest cause of mortality in the world, the study said.
It claimed more than 17 million lives in 2004, a toll that could rise to more than 23 million by 2030.
The study appears in Heart, published by the British Medical Association (BMA).

http://news.ph.msn.com/top-stories/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4433158


From Stanford

Earlier this spring, an Institute of Medicine (IOM) report recommended the U.S. Food and Drug Administration establish new standards for the amount of salt that food manufacturers, restaurants, and food service companies are allowed to add to their products. In the interim, IOM suggested the food and beverage industry pursue voluntary efforts to reduce sodium in products.
A recent Stanford study showed an industry-wide effort to curb salt in foods could prevent strokes and heart attacks in nearly a million Americans and save $32.1 billion in medical costs.