Government is urged to regulate salt

Doctors have called on the Government to reduce the amount of salt in processed food, as the strongest evidence yet has emerged that too much can cause heart disease and strokes.

The latest findings, from a study of more than 10,000 people, found that a diet high in salt raised systolic blood pressure and made them more vulnerable.

The "Intersalt" study, updated from its original findings eight years ago, and published in the British Medical Journal today, found that the link between excess sodium absorbed from salt and higher than average blood pressure was "stronger and larger than originally reported in 1988".

At present, between 65 and 85 per cent of salt intake comes from processed food. An accompanying editorial in the BMJ urged the Government to regulate the food industry, warning: "If [the Government] is serious about reducing premature deaths from cancer and heart disease it will need to ignore the voices of vested interest and listen to the advice of its independent expert advisers."

The action group Consensus Action on Salt and Hypertension [Cash] said a small reduction in sodium intake would make a large difference. Graham MacGregor, professor of cardiovascular medicine at St George's Hospital Medical School, said: "The British Government, at least in relation, to salt seems to have disassociated itself from its social responsibility for the welfare of its citizens. An average three-gram reduction in salt intake over the next decade could easily be achieved."

But Dr Alexander Macnair, medical adviser to the Snack, Nut and Crisp Manufacturers' Association, said: "My position . . . is that salt intake has small and unpredictable effects upon blood pressure in those whose blood pressure is normal."

Professor MacGregor argued: "The salt and processed food industry has fought a careful, expensive and largely successful public relations campaign over the past decade . . . to convince the rest of the food industry, food suppliers, politicians, nutritionists and doctors that the evidence for salt is not substantial."