Salt Intake of Children and Adolescents in South London Results of a recent study, “Salt Intake of Children and Adolescents in South London Consumption Levels and Dietary Sources” found that children’s salt intake is too high in South London, with most of the salt coming
from processed foods. Authors of the cross-sectional study analyzed data from 340 South London school children across 3 age groups: 5 to 6 year olds, 8 to 9 year olds, and 13 to 17 year olds. Dietary salt intake was measured by 24-hour urinary sodium excretion; dietary sources of salt were assessed using a 24-hour photographic food diary. Average salt intake was found to be 3.75 g/d , 4.72 g/d, and 7.55 g/d for the 5- to 6-year olds, 8- to 9-year olds, and 13- to 17-year olds, respectively. Other findings indicate the majority of all age groups consumed excess salt, primarily from cereal and cereal-based products (36%, which included bread 15%), meat products (19%), and milk and milk products (11%).
The study, published in the journal Hypertension, may be found here: https://hyper.ahajournals.org/content/early/2014/03/10/HYPERTENSIONAHA.113.02264.full.pdf.
Sodium Intake from Pizza A Dietary Data Brief recently released by the Food Surveys Research Group indicates that pizza contributed 33% and 38% of daily sodium intake among children and adult consumers, respectively. The Dietary Data Brief entitled, “Consumption of Pizza: What We Eat in America, NHANES 2007-2010” summarizes key results from What We Eat in America. Highlights include:
·For consumers of pizza, the average intake of sodium from pizza was 1,136 mg for children and 1,599 mg for adults.
·On the day eaten, pizza provided about ¼ of the total day’s calories and about 1/3 of the day’s sodium and calcium for children and adults.
The Data Brief may be found here: http://www.ars.usda.gov/SP2UserFiles/Place/12355000/pdf/DBrief/11_consumption_of_pizza_0710.pdf.
Temple University Launches New Sodium Reduction Website
The Center for Asian Health at Temple University recently launched a new website related to the Philadelphia Healthy Chinese Take-out Initiative.The Philadelphia Department of Health (DOH) launched the Philadelphia Healthy Chinese Take-out Initiative, a joint effort of the DOH, Philadelphia Chinese Restaurant Association, the Center for Asian Health of Temple University, and the Asian Community Health Coalition. The Initiative provides free cooking lessons and tips on adding flavor without salt, and is also offering advice on finding suppliers to source low sodium ingredients at a reasonable price and encouraging restaurant operators to limit the number of soy sauce packets handed out to customers. The new website may be found here: http://dmv.ephtracking.net/restaurants/TheInitiative.html.