Salt policy makers in the Netherlands are consuming more than the average daily recommended salt intake of 6 grams in one hot meal at their work canteens, finds a study in the Christmas issue published on bmj.com.
The authors, led by Dr Lizzy Brewster at the University of Amsterdam, say the policy makers eating at their staff canteens were consuming around 15.4 grams of salt a day. They warn that this amount of salt, compared to the recommended intake, translates to up to a 36% increase in premature death.
Excess salt intake is estimated to cause 30% of all high blood pressure, and many countries have programmes to encourage individuals to consume less.
The researchers focused on policy makers because they assumed they would have a high awareness of the risk of high salt intake.
They selected 18 canteens at the Department of Health, the Health Council, the Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority, university and non-university hospitals in the Netherlands. On three random days the researchers collected a typical hot lunch from the staff canteens.
The average salt content of the meals was around 7 grams – exceeding the total daily recommended salt intake of 6 grams and was high at all locations.
The authors argue that "if people eat the meals served at the institutions we studied, they run an estimated increase in cardiovascular risk of 32-36% more deaths from stroke and 23-27% more deaths from coronary heart disease compared with people who adhere to the guidelines."
The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance. – Aristotle
