Table salt and added free sugar as nutrient “targets” in preventive dietetics in essential hypertension and associated diseases (literature review)

Abstract

A review of foreign and native sources of literature from scientometric databases provides data on the harmful and beneficial properties of such well-known nutrients as table salt and sugar in essential hypertension and associated diseases, primarily in abdominal obesity and diabetes mellitus. The historical aspects of obtaining these nutrients, their participation in the pathogenesis of hypertension, the physiology of sodium and glucose metabolism are considered; the evidence base for prospective epidemiological studies is provided; the negative impact of these products on the intestinal microbiota, alarming statistics of salt and added free sugar abuse in population of different countries, social, economic and medical aspects of excess salt and sugar as risk factors for chronic non-communicable diseases emergence and progression of arterial hypertension are noted. The methods for assessing their amount in food, approaches to inhibiting salt and sugar-rich food abuse are given; the attention on the materials of the WHO, European, American, and Ukrainian guidelines on the safe amount of both nutrients is focused. The paper gives advice on rational nutrition of patients and options for modern diets, first of all, a low-salt DASH diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) from the standpoint of salt and sugar limiting.