Salt: The forgotten pandemic

Mhairi Brown, Programme Manager (originally published on Open Access Government) COVID-19 has completely changed life in the UK and has quite rightly demanded our attention and action to protect our loved ones, communities and businesses. But way before this, there was the forgotten pandemic i.e. eating too much salt (and otherwise known as the silent killer) which...

Racial Disparities in the UK’s Health System

Sheena Bhageerutty, Assistant Nutritionist, Action on Salt (originally published on New Food) We are in a state of transition, somewhat grieving our old lives and slowly evolving into the new norm. During this uncomfortable period, I have tried to keep active and exercise my brain as much as possible.Earlier this month, the Global Nutrition Report...

Latest survey reveals that our salt intake has not come down in years, as new evidence reinforces the need for salt reduction

Monique Tan, PhD Researcher In March, the long-awaited survey of salt intake in England was published  – which came with disappointing results. Not only is our average salt intake still well above the maximum recommended intakes (by 40%), but it has not declined for the past ten years.1  This means that the downward trend we...

Developing a policy to reduce salt levels in food eaten outside the home in Malaysia

Mhairi Brown, International Programme Lead for World Action on Salt and Health In February of this year, we were delighted to be awarded funding by the Newton Fund Impact Scheme to investigate how to lower salt levels in the out of home sector (which includes restaurants, cafes and street food vendors) in Malaysia, along with...

The Importance of Reducing Salt and Sugar During Ramadan

  Dr Kawther Hashem, Campaign Lead for Action on Sugar In the UK, Muslims will be abstaining from food and drink from sunrise (approx. 4am) until sunset (approx. 8.15pm). During the month, only two main meals will be consumed by the majority of Muslims, the iftar (evening meal to break the fast) and suhur (the pre-dawn meal before...

Worrying trends in salt intake in China

Monique Tan PhD Student, Queen Mary University of London Why does salt matter in China? Considered “king of all flavours”, salt has played an essential role in the preparation and preservation of foods for thousands of years in China. However, eating too much salt increases the risk of multiple health conditions, especially cardiovascular disease (via...

Investigating the potential benefits of the FDA’s salt reduction targets

Earlier this week the following paper was published, which investigates the potential impact of proposed salt reduction work in the US. Read on for our summary of the findings. Pearson-Stuttard J., Kypridemos C., Collins B., Mozaffarian D., Huang Y., Bandosz P. et al. Estimating the health and economic effects of the proposed US Food and...

Brazil’s Salt Reduction Program

For our first blog post, we turn to Brazil! Brazil set up a salt reduction programme in 2007 which has had a successful decade, due largely in part to the cooperation of the Brazilian food industry.  Why is salt reduction needed in Brazil? The Brazilian Household Budget Survey 2008-20091 found that, on average, Brazilian adults consume a...