CUTTING people’s salt intake by one teaspoon a day could save around 4m lives worldwide every year, researchers said today.
Almost 3m deaths from heart disease could be prevented, while more than a million deaths from stroke could also be avoided.
On average, people in the UK and other Western countries eat almost 10g of salt a day, despite the World Health Organisation recommendation being 5g – or one teaspoon.
According to the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in the UK, 26m Britons eat too much salt every day, way above its own recommendation of 6g daily.
Now researchers from the UK and Italy have reviewed 13 studies involving more than 170,000 people and found a direct link between salt and the risk of stroke or heart disease.
