Cardiologist: Cut salt consumption to battle heart failure Special

London - The extremely high salt consumption of Canadians is a contributing factor in the high heart failure rates seen in Canada, and yet we are training our children to crave salt, a panel of experts said recently.

“It is not rocket science to know what we can do to prevent it (heart failure),” Dr. Peter Pflugfelder, a cardiologist at the London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) in London, Ontario, told the audience at the heart failure awareness event held annually as part of the February heart month activities. He’s right: watch salt consumption, exercise regularly, drink alcohol in moderation and stay on your medication. This could be fleshed out, but this is a good summary. The lifetime risk of developing heart failure is running at 20 percent, one in five, in Canada, according to Dr. Malcolm Arnold, another cardiologist at LHSC. Arnold said for those over 65 “the commonest diagnosis for admission into hospitals is heart failure.” Take a look at that list again. The first item is “Watch salt consumption.” Not only do many Canadians, and North Americans in general, not pay attention to their salt, they are being trained to crave it. Registered dietitian Jennifer-Anne Meneray gave the audience “the salty truth”, saying “Salt is an acquired taste.” This is certainly true in the quantities that North Americans consume. Sodium (salt or sodium chloride) is an essential nutrient, but very little is needed in the diet. Canadian adults consume an average of 3092 mg of sodium daily while Americans fare even worse; They consume on average 3436 mg of sodium daily. This is more than double what many experts now believe should be the daily limit (1500 mg). Some salt is naturally occurring in our food, some is added by us --- either during cooking or at the table --- but the vast majority of dietary salt, 77 percent, is hidden in the processed foods we eat. For this reason, according to Meneray, saying, “I never ever use the salt shaker,” is not a complete answer to the problem. She pointed out that one bowl of processed soup can easily contain 860 mg of sodium. And this is before the crackers are added. What is worse, “We are teaching our kids (to crave salt) from a very young age.” The recommended daily limit for a toddler is 1000 mg. Some prepared toddler foods supply a shocking 50 percent of this amount. One jar of beef stroganoff for toddlers from Heinz contains 420 milligrams of sodium. Salt should not be associated with treats. Our children trust us. If we take them to a fast food restaurant, we are saying this food is good. It isn’t and a fast food serving of a hamburger and fries should not be given to children as a treat, the audience was told. Salt, of course, is not the whole problem. There were three other items on our initial list. But tackling salt consumption is a good place to start your own personal battle against heart failure.