\n Through a new analysis, The British Heart Foundation [BHF] has revealed that more than half of Brits are unaware of how much salt they consume every day.\n<\/p>\n
\n A senior dietician is warning this may be because some of our foodie staples contain hidden salt which could be causing havoc to our health.\n<\/p>\n
\n Salt contains sodium, which plays a role in regulating fluid balance in the body.\n<\/p>\n
\n The NHS states adults should have no more than 6g of salt a day, which is around one level teaspoon.\n<\/p>\n
\n This includes the salt that’s already in our food and the salt added during and after cooking.\n<\/p>\n
\n The BHF revealed working-age adults in England eat an average of 8.4g of salt per day.\n<\/p>\n
\n A worrying 56% of Brits were also found to be not confident in estimating their daily salt intake, with only 16% being able to correctly identify the national maximum adult guideline.\n<\/p>\n
\n These statistics were revealed through a new poll commissioned by BHF alongside YouGov on 2,000 adults.\n<\/p>\n
\n A further 20% of Brits also thought the daily salt intake was more than 6g and a third (32%) said they didn’t know.\n<\/p>\n
\n When we eat too much salt, extra water is drawn into the bloodstream, which increases blood volume and raises your blood pressure.\n<\/p>\n
\n This can put a strain on your heart and blood vessels over time, which increases the\u00a0risk of heart attacks, strokes, heart failure and vascular dementia.\n<\/p>\n
\n Some foods with high salt content won’t come as a surprise like bacon, ham, olives and gravy granules.\n<\/p>\n
\n But Lloyds Pharmacy revealed there may be some products that are staple in your weekly shop that may shock you with their high salt content.\n<\/p>\n
\n Types of bread like crumpets and bagels, pasta sauces, pizzas, breakfast cereals, soups, cheeses and sausages can all contain high levels of salt.\n<\/p>\n
\n The NHS said it is also worthwhile for Brits to check their pasta sauces, stock cubes, ketchup, soy sauce, mayonnaise and pickles too for their salt contents.\n<\/p>\n
\n Dell Stanford, BHF senior dietician, said the ‘hidden’ salt in these items could be putting your health at risk.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\n Dell said: “Most of the salt we eat is hidden in the food we buy such as bread, cereals, pre-made sauces and ready meals, so it\u2019s often hard to know exactly how much salt we\u2019re consuming.\n<\/p>\n
\n “This is bad news for our heart health, as eating too much salt significantly increases the risk of high blood pressure, a major cause of heart attacks, strokes, and other serious diseases.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n “The Government must step in to make the healthy choice much easier for families by giving manufacturers an incentive to take out excessive amounts of salt from our food.”\n<\/p>\n
\n In light of this, here are some NHS tips to help you reduce your salt intake:\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
Try adding flavour to your food with herbs and spices, black pepper, garlic, chili, or lemon juice instead of salt.<\/p>\n
Limit the amount of salt you add to your cooking and eating – taste your food before deciding to add extra salt.<\/p>\n
Choose lower-salt foods by checking the label on the back of packaging.<\/p>\n
Buy tinned vegetables, pulses of fish in water instead of brine.<\/p>\n
Have healthier snacks such as plain rice cakes, fruit, vegetables sticks or unsalted nuts.<\/p>\n
Try low or reduced-salt versions of food and sauces.<\/p>\n
Eat salty foods less often and in small amounts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Through a new analysis, The British Heart Foundation [BHF] has revealed that more than half of Brits are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540146,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[49,48,84,395],"class_list":["post-540145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-nutrition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}