New research suggests that children in London eat an unhealthy amount of salt, and the majority of it comes from seemingly benign breads and cereals.
In the largest salt intake study ever conducted in U.K. youth researchers found 36 percent of their average daily salt intake came from bread and cereal, a American Heart Association news release reported.
"We know that salt starts increasing the risk of high blood pressure in children starting at age one," Graham MacGregor, M.D., study author and professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, Barts and The London School of Medicine & Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, said in the news release. "There needs to be a much greater effort to reduce salt in foods."
Researchers analyzed urine samples from 340 children to measure salt consumption. The participants' parents also kept a detailed food diary and took pictures of everything the children ate.
Along with the 36 percent salt intake attributed to bread and cereal, meat accounted for 19 percent of their salt intake and dairy accounted for 11 percent.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates children between the ages of one and 18 consume over the recommended 1,500 milligrams of daily sodium.
"While salt intake in children wasn't measured prior to the U.K.'s salt-reduction campaign, the salt intake in adults has fallen 15 percent in six years. So, that policy is working, but it's not working fast enough. We need to do more and the U.S. needs a similar program," as children eat the same brands of processed foods and fast foods in both countries," MacGregor said.
Excessive salt intake can cause conditions such as high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke, the news release reported. Children who consume a high sodium diet are believed to be about 40 percent more likely to have high blood pressure than those who do not.
"It is very difficult for parents to reduce children's salt intake unless they avoid packaged and restaurant foods and prepare each meal from scratch using fresh, natural ingredients," MacGregor said.
