Salt is essential for survival – but too much of it is life-threatening. However, many people consume far too much of it. A new study is now sounding the alarm: According to this, salting shortens the lifespan by two years. What’s behind it.
It doesn’t taste good without it. Hardly any dish can do without salt. Finished products in particular often contain a lot of it, because the white gold not only provides taste, but also helps to preserve food.
It is vital for the human body, such as regulating water balance and playing a role in digestion and muscle work. Table salt is the main source of sodium and chloride. However, in excessive amounts, it can also be unhealthy and even life-threatening. As a rule, adults should not consume more than one teaspoon per day. But a lot of people don’t stick to that. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), around three million deaths worldwide every year are due to the consumption of too much salt.
So far, scientists have not been able to clearly determine when salt becomes unhealthy. However, a new US study has come to an alarming conclusion: those who add salt increase their risk of dying prematurely.
More specifically, they found:
The survival time of people who constantly added salt to their food decreased
compared to people who never or only rarely added salt.
According to experts, consuming too much salt can increase blood pressure and thus the risk of cardiovascular disease. Such diseases account for almost a third of the world’s deaths that are not related to infectious diseases. Eating too much salt can also contribute to chronic liver disease, kidney disease, obesity and stomach cancer, WHO reports.
The researchers published their results in the European Heart Journal. The study included a very large number of participants of around 500,000 people, who the researchers observed over a period of nine years. What also makes the data meaningful is that the scientists consider influencing factors such as
taken into account so that they did not falsify the results. “To my knowledge, our study is the first to examine the association between adding salt to food and premature death,” study leader Lu Qi of Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans told The Guardian.
“Even a small reduction in sodium intake by adding less or no salt to table-side meals is likely to result in significant health benefits, especially when achieved in the general population,” Lu Qi said.
For this reason, the WHO has recommended limit values for the salt content in certain foods. For example, about 100 grams of sweet biscuits should contain no more than 265 milligrams of sodium. Sodium is a component of salt. Among the approximately 60 guide values are also
But people in Germany are well above that: In a 2019 study, the DGE reported that women in Germany consume an average of 8.4 grams and men 10 grams of salt. 50 percent of men and 38.5 percent of women consume more than 10 grams of salt every day.
Dishes can taste good even without too much salt. Alternatives are about spices like
Dried herbs like
also ensure a round taste, recommends “Ökotest”.
