BBC: Less salt, better health

Do you know the five tastes which give food its flavour, Neil? There's sweet...

Yes...and er, sour, bitter...

And salty! Everyone knows that salt makes food taste better by enhancing the flavours of the ingredients. There's even a phrase you'll see in many recipes- 'add a pinch of salt'.

But exactly how much salt makes a 'pinch' of the salt? The World Health Organization, or WHO, recommends a daily salt intake of less than 5g, about the same as a teaspoon. In fact, the human body needs salt- at least 1g a day to survide. But most of us eat far too much, increasing the risk of high blood pressure and heart disease. In this programme, we'll be asking how much salt is too much? And, as usual, we'll be learning some useful new vocabulary as well. 

Great! But first I have a question for you, Neil. The reason it's difficult to know how much salt you consume is that it's hidden in food, especially processed food. So, which of the following everyday foods do you think contains most salt? Is it:

a) meat    b) bread    or  c) pasta?

Well, I'm going to guess that meat is the saltiest of those foods. 

OK, Neil, I'll reaveal the answer later in the programme. Marian Sumbiva lives in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, a country where people eat, on average, 17g of salt a day. That's more than three times the amount recommended by the WHO. Here, Maran explains some of the reasons behind this to BBC World Service programme, 'The Food Chain':

We consume lots of salt, which is due to historical heritage, because when we were nomads, for conturies and centuries we traveled and wandered across the steppes, and here, we had to carry lots of meat which could be preserved only adding salt. And even the milk products, the dairy products, are alos very much salty for the same reasons. 

Besides improving its flavour, salt can be used to preserve food, to stop it from going bad. Traditionally, people in Kazakhstan were nomads, they traveled from place to place with their animals, rather than living in one place all the time. Traveling food with salt gave them enough to eat during the long winter months. They even did it with dairy products, foods which are made from milk, such as cheese and butter. 

So, salt has a long, useful, history. But there's a big difference between traditional Kazakh nomads and the health problems associated with modern processed food. When we eat too much salt, the body dilutes it by retaining water. And as a result, the heart works harder to pump liquid around the body. This causes high blood pressure which, over time, can lead to heart disease. 

Globvally, governments are fighting this health risk in different ways. The Australian government reduced its recommended salt intake to 6g a day, while the British government has passed laws forcing food compaines to reduce the amount of salt they use, and now recommends just 5g of salt per day. 

Clare Collins is professor of nutrition at the University of Newcastle in Australia. Here, she explains more about these salt recommendations to BBC World Service programme, 'The Food Chain':

I think you just gotta take a step back, and look at the bigger picture, like arguing whether it should be 5g or 6g...The issue is that around the world, salt intakes are very high...contributing to high blood pressure, contributing to premature strokes, premature mortality, and we need to address it in a way that's culturally appropriate for each country.