Why India needs to urgently reduce its salt intake

In Focus by The Hindu

Two weeks ago, the World Health Organization released a set of guidelines recommending the use of the lower-sodium salt substitutes. These products reduce the amount of sodium chloride in the salt, replacing it with potassium chloride. Reducing salt intake – or sodium intake, has long been held by experts as one of the easiest and cheapest ways to reduce our burden of non-communicable diseases. The WHO’s recommendation is 5 grams of salt a day but Indians eat far more than this at around 8 grams per day. Think about this – an estimated 1.89 million deaths every year globally are associated with consuming too much sodium. And India bears a huge burden of these deaths.

So what are lower sodium salt substitutes, and how can they help? Do we need to reduce the salt used while cooking food? What about food outside the home, and ultra processed food available in supermarkets? What are the costs of lower sodium salt substitutes and does India need a country-wide programme to help people make this modification to their diets?

Guest: Dr Vivekanand Jha, executive director, George Institute for Global Health, India and past president, International Society of Nephrology

Host: Zubeda Hamid

Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.