Recent news revealed that a slice of white bread could contain as much salt as a packet of crisps, the threat of secret salt lurking in everyday foods is a real one.
New data shows that a surprising number of people – almost half in fact – admit to having a ‘salt tooth’ rather than a ‘sweet tooth’. This means that the UK has become a nation with a taste for salty food.
The average person here consumes 8.4g of salt per day, which is well above the maximum daily intake of 6g, and so many people are increasing their risk, not just of high blood pressure, but chances of heart attack and stroke too.
Help is on hand to curb the potentially deadly ‘salt tooth’ habit and it comes in the form of a new wellness trend – the ‘Stick to Six’ challenge.
Just in time for Salt Awareness Week on 15 – 21 May the ‘Stick to Six’ challenge is promoted by health campaigners – Season with Sense – and the nutrition tracking app, Nutracheck, who are teaming up to make it easy and free to track daily salt intake. The challenge aims to encourage the nation to reduce their salt intake by sticking to the recommended 6g of salt a day for seven days.
Backed by TV’s Dr Sarah Jarvis, the new challenge puts the power in anyone’s hands to track salt intake and uncover the secret salt hiding in everything from bread to biscuits, stir-in sauces to breakfast cereals.
www.seasonwithsense.com/sticktosix
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
