Abstract
In China, few people are aware of the amount and source of their salt intake. We conducted a survey to investigate the consumption and sources of dietary salt using the “one-week salt estimation method” by weighing cooking salt and major salt-containing food, and estimating salt intake during dining out based on established evidence. Nine hundred and three families (1981 adults and 971 children) with students in eight primary or junior high schools in urban and suburban Beijing were recruited. On average, the daily dietary salt intake of family members in Beijing was 11.0 (standard deviation: 6.2) g for children and adolescents (under 18 years old), 15.2 (9.1) g for adults (18 to 59 years old), and 10.2 (4.8) g for senior citizens (60 years old and over), respectively. Overall, 60.5% of dietary salt was consumed at home, and 39.5% consumed outside the home. Approximately 90% of the salt intake came from cooking (household cooking and cafeteria or restaurant cooking), while less than 10% came from processed food. In conclusion, the dietary salt intake in Beijing families far surpassed the recommended amounts by World Health Organization, with both household cooking and dining-out as main sources of salt consumption. More targeted interventions, especially education about major sources of salt and corresponding methods for salt reduction should be taken to reduce the risks associated with a high salt diet.
Highlights
Convincing evidence has shown that high sodium intake is associated with an increased risk of high blood pressure, which is a major risk factor for coronary heart disease and both forms of stroke [1]
There were several reasons for choosing students to be the key persons for this study: (1) In China, most students take homework given by their teacher very seriously resulting in higher compliance rates than those of adult family members; (2) primary and junior high school students usually live with their families and are familiar with the daily diets of each family member; (3) the information needed was simple for these students to accurately collect, and, if necessary, they could get assistance from their trained parents who had been taught to how to use the family kitchen scale appropriately and record the dietary information correctly
60.5% (8.1 (4.5) g/person/day) of dietary salt was consumed at home, and 39.5% (5.3 (6.7) g/person/day) consumed out at cafeterias or restaurants. 93.1% of the salt came from cooking while 6.9% came from processed food
Summary
Convincing evidence has shown that high sodium intake is associated with an increased risk of high blood pressure, which is a major risk factor for coronary heart disease and both forms of stroke (ischemic and hemorrhagic) [1]. (2) identify the major sources of salt consumption; and (3) propose measures for population salt reduction. Several methods can be used to estimate salt intake: 24-h urine collection, duplicate diets and dietary surveys [4]. Twenty-four-hour urine collection, while accurately estimating salt intake and considered the “gold standard,” cannot distinguish between sources of salt. Duplicate diets are complicated to implement, and dietary surveys have proved to be inaccurate sometimes even showing poor correlation with results from urine collection [7]. To estimate dietary salt intake and identify the sources of salt intake in family members in Beijing, China, we used a simplified one-week dietary record method named the “one week estimation method”, which combined weighing cooking salt and major salt containing foods with evidence based estimation of salt consumption when dining out
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