Status: 15.01.2024, 13:44 PM
By: Andreas Beez
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Professor Heribert Schunkert is Director of the Department of Adult Cardiology at the German Heart Center in Munich. © Jörg Müller
Many consumers unconsciously eat too much salt. This increases blood pressure. Specialists such as heart professor Heribert Schunkert warn of hidden salt traps.
More and more consumers are shopping in a health-conscious way. In practice, this means that they first look at the nutritional information on the packaging before the product ends up in their cart or basket. How many calories are in it, how high are the fat and sugar contents? But let's be honest: Have you ever thought about the salt content of a certain food in the supermarket? Or at the bakery? In the butcher's shop? No? But it would be better! Too much salt can make you sick – and in the worst case, even cost your life. Cardiologists and vascular specialists warn against this.
How to calculate the salt content of food
When shopping in the supermarket, consumers often find it difficult to recognize the salt content of a food. The reason: While information about calories, fat and carbohydrates, for example, is easy to find on most packaging, the term salt is often searched in vain in the printed table with the nutritional information. Instead, a sodium level is recorded. Sodium is a component of table salt. To calculate the salt content, you need to multiply the stated sodium value in grams by a factor of 2.54. For example, if a food contains 2 grams of sodium, it contains 5.08 grams of table salt. As a rule of thumb, from 0.59 grams of sodium or 1.5 grams of table salt per 100 grams, the amount of salt in a food is in the red zone.
Heart Professor Heribert Schunkert: Too much salt threatens high blood pressure and severe vascular damage
"We Germans eat far too salty," says Professor Heribert Schunkert, Director of the Clinic for Heart and Circulatory Diseases at the German Heart Center in Munich and Deputy Chairman of the German Heart Foundation. "There is a risk of high blood pressure and severe vascular damage, including heart attacks and strokes."
There is a lot of salt in bread. The high salt content can contribute to increasing blood pressure and thus the risk of damage to the vascular system. © Jan Woitas/dpa
Studies show that even small reductions in blood pressure have a major effect on health
Why is too much salt so dangerous? It often causes blood pressure to rise – a problem that is particularly difficult for people with already high levels. Decreased salt intake can lower blood pressure by an average of four to two mm Hg. For example, if you used to have a blood pressure of 140/90, you can reduce your blood pressure to 136/88 by reducing salt. Sounds like a small change, but it can have a big effect: Large-scale studies show that even a small reduction in blood pressure of two mm Hg (that's what the medical unit of measurement is called) reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease by seven to ten percent.
Just two ham rolls can pulverize the daily salt limit
But how can the hidden salt traps be unmasked? Comparatively large quantities are found in ready-made meals, fast food, but also in sausages, cheese and, above all, baked goods. According to European heart guidelines, you should consume a maximum of five to six grams of salt per day. Often, however, even a ready-made meal, a burger menu or a meal in the canteen exceeds the recommended daily dose. Even two ham rolls can be enough to pulverize the salt limit. Statisticians have calculated that we get 27 to 28 percent of our salt intake from bread and rolls. Meat and sausage account for another 15 to 21 percent, cheese for eleven percent.