Context:

The World Health Organization (WHO) has released new guidelines to reduce sodium intake, aiming to address its significant impact on human health, especially in relation to blood pressure and cardiovascular diseases.

Recommendation for Salt Substitutes:

The guideline recommends reducing sodium intake to less than 2 grams per day, equivalent to about 5 grams of salt.

The newest guideline encourages partially replacing table salt with potassium-based salt substitutes or K salts.

The guideline does not apply to women, children, or individuals with kidney impairments due to insufficient data.

What are K-salts?

K-salts are potassium-based substitutes for regular table salt (which contains sodium chloride). They replace sodium chloride with potassium chloride.

1.   Benefits:

o    Double Benefit: K-salts help reduce sodium consumption while increasing potassium intake.

o    Blood Pressure: Increasing potassium intake has been shown to significantly reduce blood pressure, even on its own.

2.   Sources of Potassium:

o    Potassium is naturally found in foods like:

1.   Beans, peas, and nuts.

2.   Vegetables such as spinach and cabbage.

3.   Fruits like bananas and papaya.

Importance of the Guideline for India

1.   Prevalence of Hypertension:

35.5% of India’s population (around 315 million people) suffer from hypertension, according to the INDIAB study.

2.   Cardiovascular Disease Burden:

Cardiovascular diseases accounted for 28.1% of all deaths in India in 2016, as per the Global Burden of Disease study.

3.   Public Health Significance:

The guideline is crucial for addressing the growing burden of hypertension, heart attacks, and strokes, especially among younger populations in India.

Challenges in Implementing the Guideline

·        High-sodium foods contribute to taste addiction, making it hard for people to shift to potassium-based salts.

·        Sodium salts help retain moisture and increase shelf-life of foods, making them more cost-effective for manufacturers. Sodium salts also help increase the weight of products without additional cost, which makes switching to potassium salts difficult in pre-packaged foods.