I love you salt, but you’rebreaking my heart

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The Facts• The average American takes in more than

3,400 milligrams of sodium each day—more than twice the ideal amount for heart health, according to the American Heart Association.

• Studies link excess sodium intake to the development of elevated blood pressure, which increases the risk of heart attacks, stroke, and kidney disease.

• Of children ages 1-18, 93 percent consume too much sodium, putting them at risk of developing heart disease and elevated blood pressure at an earlier age.

Why Focus on Sodium?Direct impact on health

• Nine in ten Americans eat more sodium than is recommended for a healthy diet - sodium is ubiquitous in the environment and found in many unsuspecting foods at levels that are often unnecessary

• Consuming too much sodium in the foods we eat is strongly linked to the development and worsening of high blood pressure, with increased risk of kidney disease, stroke and heart disease

• One-third of American adults have high blood pressure, and about 90% of American adults are expected to develop high blood pressure in their lifetimes

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Source: Lawrence J. Appel, Edward D. Frohlich, John E. Hall, Thomas A. Pearson, Ralph L. Sacco, Douglas R. Seals, Frank M. Sacks, Sidney C. Smith, Jr, Dorothea K. Vafiadis, and Linda V. Van Horn The Importance of Population-Wide Sodium Reduction as a Means to Prevent Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke: A Call to Action From the American Heart Association Circulation, Jan 2011; doi:10.1161/CIR.0b013e31820d0793

Why Focus on Sodium?Healthcare savings

• If Americans reduced sodium intake to 1,500 mg/day, this could result in an estimated $26.2 billion in health care savings and improve the quality of life substantially1

• A national effort that reduces sodium intake by 1,200 mg/day could reduce health care costs by up to $24 billion per year2

Health disparities• The prevalence of high blood pressure in African American adults in the

U.S. is 40%, among the highest in the world• African Americans have almost twice the risk of first-ever stroke

compared with whites• Hispanics are at an increased risk of hypertension and stroke; sodium

intake is significantly higher in Hispanic infants and toddlers

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1. Palar and Sturm. American Journal of Health Promotion: September/October 2009, Vol. 24, No. 1, pp. 49-57.2. Bibbins-Domingo et al. New England Journal of Medicine. 2010;362:590-599.

Why Focus on Sodium?Developing healthy habits in children

• Establish salt preferences early in life - eating habits formed today will continue into adulthood

• In the US, nearly 80 percent of 1-3 year olds and more than 90 percent of 4-18 year-olds in the U.S. get too much sodium1 – and a recent study found that many toddler foods have too much sodium2

• Kids who have high sodium diets are about 40% more likely to have elevated blood pressure as kids who have lower sodium diets3

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1. CDC. 2013. MMWR 62(50). Trends in the Prevalence of Excess Dietary Sodium Intake — United States, 2003–2010.2. Joyce Maalouf; Mary E Cogswell; Janelle P Gunn; Robert Merritt (CDC, Atlanta, GA). 2013. EPI/NPAM Abstract P53:

Sodium Content of Commercial Baby and Toddler Foods http://circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/meeting_abstract/127/12_MeetingAbstracts/AP253

3. Rosner et al. Hypertension 2013;62:247-254.

Average Daily Sodium Consumption

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Avg Daily Intake …

The AHA recommends that Americans should consumeless than 1500 mg of sodium

4From NHANES 2003-2006 -CDC. 2009. Application of lower sodium intake recommendations to adults – United States, 1999-2006. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 58(11):281-283.

Dietary Sodium Sources

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Mattes, RD, Donnelly, D. Relative contributions of dietary sodium sources. Journal of the American College of Nutrition. 1991 Aug;10(4):383-393.

If the food industry voluntarily reduced sodium by 50% in the top 50 foods contributing to Americans’ sodium intakes, and then reduced sodium by 10%

in all other foods, this could result in 80% of Americans achieving intermediate sodium intake

goals and 30% achieving ideal sodium intake.Source: Antman et al., Circulation 2014. Vol 129 (Data supplement)

Why Sodium Reduction?

Introducing: www.heart.org/sodium

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The Salty SixExplains top

contributors to sodium in

Americans’ diets and encourages you

to find lower-sodium versions of

these foods

The Sodium Swap

Challenge

Encourages you to be aware of your sodium intake and take a 3-week pledge to swap

lower-sodium versions to two Salty Six items per week

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Your Role – Spreading the Word

• Visiting our website, www.heart.org/sodium

• Signing the pledge to show you’re ready to reduce your sodium

• Watching the ‘Sneaky Salt’ Video• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR81aziXRfw

• Taking the sodium quiz to test their sodium knowledge.

• Sharing all of the above actions with their friends via email and social networks.

We encourage you to get involved by:

Questions?

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