Abstract
BackgroundReducing salt intake in communities is one of the most effective and affordable public health strategies to prevent hypertension, stroke and renal disease. The present study aimed to determine the sodium intake in Hong Kong Chinese postmenopausal women and identify the major food sources contributing to sodium intake and urine excretion.MethodsThis was a cross-sectional study among 655 Chinese postmenopausal women with prehypertension who were screened for a randomized controlled trial. Data collection included 24 h urine collection for the measurement of sodium, potassium and creatinine, 3-day dietary records, anthropometric measures and questionnaire survey on demographic data and dietary habits.ResultsThe average salt intake estimated from urinary excretion was 7.8±3.2 g/d with 82.1% women above WHO recommendation of 5 g/day. Food groups as soup (21.6%), rice and noodles (13.5%), baked cereals (12.3%), salted/preserved foods (10.8%), Chinese dim sum (10.2%) and sea foods (10.1%) were the major contributors of non-discretionary salt. Discretionary salt use in cooking made a modest contribution to overall intake. Vegetable and fruit intake, age, sodium intake from salted foods, sea foods and soup were the independent determinants of urinary sodium excretion.ConclusionsOur data revealed a significant room for reduction of the sodium intake. Efforts to reduce sodium from diets in Hong Kong Chinese postmenopausal women should focus on both processed foods and discretionary salt during cooking. Sodium reduction in soup and increase in fruit intake would be potentially effective strategy for reducing sodium.
Highlights
Reducing salt intake in communities is one of the most effective and affordable public health strategies to prevent hypertension, decrease the risk of stroke, heart and renal diseases,the three major causes of mortality globally as well aslocally [1]
In addition to the sodium naturally present in foods and drinking water, other important sources of sodium in our diet come from the salt used during cooking or at the table, salt added in processed foods, as well as nonsalt sodium containing ingredients such as monosodium glutamate (MSG), sodium nitrate and sodium carbonate etc
Food groups such as soup, salted foods, Chinese dim sum and sea foods were the major contributors to urinary sodium excretion
Summary
Reducing salt intake in communities is one of the most effective and affordable public health strategies to prevent hypertension, decrease the risk of stroke, heart and renal diseases,the three major causes of mortality globally as well aslocally [1]. Elevated blood pressure (BP) may aggravate the positive association between urinary sodium excretion and risk of coronary heart disease [2]. Reducing salt intake in communities is one of the most effective and affordable public health strategies to prevent hypertension, stroke and renal disease. The present study aimed to determine the sodium intake in Hong Kong Chinese postmenopausal women and identify the major food sources contributing to sodium intake and urine excretion
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