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Scientific experts agree that excessive salt consumption increases the risk of high blood pressure which, in turn, increases the chance of cardiovascular disease (CVD).  That’s why the Agency has been campaigning for a reduction in the salt intake of the UK population. 

The latest phase of the Agency’s salt campaign was launched last month and focuses on the message that most of the salt we eat (75%) is already in the food we buy, so we need to check the label and pick the product with the lowest amount of salt.

So I was very interested to read the findings from a study published in the BMJ today, which suggests that cutting down on salt can reduce the risk of developing CVD. 

The study followed up participants who had taken part in a trial 10-15 years earlier, which had examined the effect of reducing salt intake on blood pressure. 

The researchers found that those people in the group that had reduced their salt intake had a 25% lower risk of CVD compared with the group who had not changed their salt intake. 

However, we need to be a bit cautious about these findings as direct measurements were not made of salt intake or blood pressure during the follow-up period and it is not clear if the reduction in CVD outcomes was related to blood pressure effects.