Article in the Telegraph
Extract 1
"An investigation revealed that some loaves made by Warburtons, – the UK's biggest food brand after Coca-Cola – contain half a gram of salt per slice, meaning that a five-year-old child would reach their safe limit from eating three sandwiches.
Salt raises heart pressure which is the biggest cause of heart attacks and strokes. Campaigners say lowering levels would save 16,500 lives a year – a third of the deaths from smoking. A further 16,500 people would be prevented from having debilitating non-fatal heart attacks and strokes, according to the pressure group Consensus Action on Salt and Health (Cash)."
Extract 2
"Overall, Warburtons had an average of 1.08g salt, 5 per cent more than Kingsmill, 12 per cent more than Tesco, and 20 per cent saltier than Sainsbury's, which has been praised for improving cardiovascular health.
Warburtons, a privately-owned brand from Bolton, Lancashire, promotes itself as a wholesome, family-run baker. Warburtons defended its record, saying it had cut salt by "over 30 per cent in recent years" and would hit targets by their deadline in 2010."
I don't think it's completely accurate for Warburton's to say that they have cut salt by "over 30 per cent in recent years" because a few years ago some of the loaves they used to sell were called, if I remember correctly, Healthy White loaves, and they definitely contained a much lower amount of salt than other loaves - about 0.3g sodium (equal to 0.75g salt) per 100g, because they used LoSalt in the making of the bread, rather than ordinary salt. - I was very sorry that they discontinued this loaf, because it was so much less harmful than other shop-bought bread. Most bread at that time contained about 0.5g (or more) sodium per 100g.
Remember, you can make your own bread easily in a breadmaker and then you could keep the salt content down. Bread manufacturers often claim that salt is necessary to the bread-making process. - I find this hard to believe because I don't put any salt at all into the bread I make and the 'process' doesn't seem to be affected...(o: - However, this is purely my own experience; I know nothing at all about salt in bread-making other than my own experience so I may well be wrong about whether salt affects bread-making.
Extract 3
"The campaign group Consensus Action on Salt and Health (Cash) urged it to immediately make steeper cuts to improve its customers' health. Three million people eat Warburtons bread every day. "Bread is the major source of salt in the diet," said Cash's chairman, Professor Graham MacGregor, an NHS doctor who treats heart patients at St George's Hospital, south London. "It is vital that bread manufacturers take a really responsible role."
Manufacturers use salt to improve taste and disguise the use of cheap ingredients. 75 per cent of sodium in the diet comes from processed food."
I do wish Professor MacGregor would tell people the most important information about salt, namely that obesity is caused by salt sensitivity/fluid retention/sodium retention and is reduced by eating less salt. It is inconceivable that he does not know it. I wrote him a long letter about obesity and the salt connection years ago. I politely pointed out that there were some serious errors in his book about salt.
The longer he delays telling the truth about obesity, the greater the harm done to millions of people. The risk of high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke, while correct to attribute (in part) to salt intake, does not have the impact that telling the truth about obesity would have. Whilever most people, including the Government's Health Ministers, the Department of Health, doctors, dieticians and the Food Standards Agency, continue to promulgate the lie that obesity is caused by eating too many calories and is reduced by eating fewer calories than the body requires, obesity and its attendant illnesses and ill-health will almost certainly continue to increase, because, as we have just read, the food companies are dragging their feet in reducing the amount of salt they ladle into their harmful products without a lot of censure from their customers, who are being misinformed by the medical profession and Government agencies and the dieting industry.
They all need to confess that they have been misleading the public. - The misinformation is causing terrible, needless suffering, because dieting/calorie restriction leads to inadequate nutrition/malnutrition and so increases the harm done by the salt sensitivity and does not reduce obesity at all. And of course they need to tell the public about the huge rôle prescription drugs play in making people sensitive to salt.
(Addendum: according to my hitcounter, it looks as though someone from Rank Hovis has been reading this blog entry today, October 31st. - Let's hope it will do some good!)
See Extract 4:
"In general, branded breads had more salt than those made by supermarkets. Hovis' white granary bread had 1.4g of salt per 100g – the highest in the survey.")
Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)
How to Lose weight!
Children and Obesity
See Sodium in foods
No comments:
Post a Comment