Mandatory curbs on salt boost healthy hearts

OK. This goes to eating habits, which is best practices at home, so here goes!
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PARIS: Regulations forcing food manufacturers to use lower levels of salt would in theory be far more effective for health than voluntary initiatives or dietary advice for consumers, according to research published on Tuesday.

High-salt diets have long been blamed for causing high blood pressure, a potential precursor for heart attacks or stroke.

Investigators in Australia looked at the country's "Tick" programme, under which food manufacturers can use a health-promotion logo on packaging if they volunteer to reduce the product's salt content to safer levels.

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The team then calculated the impact on public health if the "Tick" limits were made mandatory.

They also looked at studies into the usefulness of programmes that offer salt advice to the general public and to those at high cardiovascular risk.

The team took into consideration the salt content of bread, margarine and cereals; the tonnage of product sold; the average consumption per head of those products; and the costs of drafting and enforcing legislation.

The "Tick" programme scored highly, reducing ill-health by cardiovascular disease across the Australian population by almost one percent - more than twice as much as dietary advice - and at a high cost-effectiveness.

But when measured in terms of the benefits on health, mandatory limits, helping to keep salt intake to below the recommended daily maximum of six grammes per day, could be far more effective, the authors suggested.

Regulations on salt would reduce cardiovascular ill health by 18 percent.

"If corporate responsibility fails, maybe there is an ethical justification for government to step in and legislate," say the authors, led by Linda Cobiac of the School of Population Health at the University of Queensland.

Laws on food content are common in many countries, requiring manufacturers for instance to add iodine to salt and folic acid in cereals.

Cardiovascular disease is the biggest cause of mortality in the world, the study said.

It claimed more than 17 million lives in 2004, a toll that could rise to more than 23 million by 2030.

The study appears in Heart, published by the British Medical Association (BMA).

-AFP/de


From ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:Mandatory curbs on salt boost healthy hearts
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Give saturated fat a second chance, say researchers

Not really something to be watching out for, but why not? Let's just say researchers and authorities can make mistakes, sometimes...
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WASHINGTON: Researchers backed by the US dairy industry say saturated fat is unfairly blamed for causing heart attacks and other cardiovascular problems.

Instead of blaming whole milk and cheeses for clogging arteries, they argue, people should reduce carbohydrates and eat more fish - alongside a glass of milk.

That's the message from the Global Dairy Platform, promoting a series of research articles published in the October issue of Lipids.

"Although diets inordinately high in fat and saturated fat are associated with increased cardiovascular disease risk in some individuals, assuming that saturated fat at any intake level is harmful is an over-simplification and not supported by scientific evidence," said Bruce German, a food science professor at the University of California.

The dairy industry says saturated fat intake has a limited impact on cardiovascular disease risk. For years they have argued that dietary advice wrongly blames saturated fat as the major cause of heart attacks, strokes and high blood pressure.

Still, the American Heart Association advises that no more than seven percent of daily calories come from saturated fat, which occur naturally in many foods, including fatty beef, pork, cream, butter and other dairy products.

The AHA says, for example, that people who need 2,000 calories per day should get no more than 140 of them from saturated fats, which translates to about 16 grams of saturated fats per day.

Total fat intake should not exceed 35 percent of daily calories, the AHA advises. Remaining fat should come from nuts, fish and vegetable oils, which are sources of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats.

Cardiovascular diseases accounted for one of three deaths in the United States in 2006, according to the AHA. Death rates from those diseases fell 29 percent in the 10-year period ending in 2006, it said.

Global Dairy Platform is an international non-profit organisation founded in 2006. One of its goals is "sustaining and expanding global demand for milk and dairy products," according to its website.

- AFP/de





From ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:
Give saturated fat a second chance, say researchers
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