Adding salt to meals at the table is linked to earlier death, according to a study of 500,000 middle-aged Britons.
The researchers found that always adding salt to food shortened more than two years of life expectancy for men and a year and a half for women. This does not include spices during the cooking process.
The study did not definitively rule out other factors, such as salt consumption as a substitute for a generally less healthy lifestyle, but the team behind the work said the evidence was compelling enough that people should consider avoiding seasoning their meals.
“To my knowledge, our study is the first to assess the association between added salt in foods and premature death,” said Prof Lu Kee of the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans, who led the work. “Even modest reductions in sodium intake, by adding less or no salt to food at the table, are likely to produce significant health benefits, especially when achieved in the general population.”
The findings are based on research involving more than 500,000 participants in the UK Biobank study, who were followed for an average of nine years. When they joined the study between 2006 and 2010, they were asked via a touchscreen questionnaire whether they added salt to their food and how often.
Salt intake is difficult to accurately track because many processed foods contain high levels of salt, and direct measurement through urine tests does not necessarily provide a snapshot of total intake. Approximately 70% of sodium intake in the Western population comes from processed and prepared foods, with 8-20% coming from table salt. However, added salt is a very good indicator of a person’s preference for salty-tasting foods, so the team focused their analysis on this measurement.
Compared to those who never or rarely added salt, those who always seasoned their food had a 28% increased risk of premature death. At age 50, men and women who always added salt had a life expectancy of 2.3 years and 1.5 years shorter, respectively.
Other factors that could influence the results, including age, sex, ethnicity, deprivation, body mass index, smoking, alcohol intake, physical activity, diet and medical conditions such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease, were taken into account.
Prof. Annika Rosengren, a senior researcher at the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, who was not involved in the research, said that while some health advice is clear – there is no downside to quitting smoking – there is an optimal level for salt, which means that it cannot be completely eliminated from the diet. It is difficult to determine the “sweet spot” in terms of health for each individual.
“So far, what the collective evidence on salt seems to show is that healthy people who consume what is considered normal levels of common salt should not worry too much about their salt intake,” she said.
Balancing salt intake with a diet rich in fruit and vegetables should be a priority for this group. However, those at high risk of heart disease should probably cut back. “Not adding extra salt to already prepared foods is one way to achieve this,” she said.
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