Potassium salt provides good alternative to sodium to cut heart risk, must be promoted: Experts

Potassium salt may provide a good alternative to sodium and must be promoted said experts on Wednesday while welcoming a new recommendation by the World Health Organization WHO on potassiumenriched salt to combat hypertension and related heart risksThe WHO in its recent guideline suggests using Ksalt or potassium chloride instead of regular table salt rich in sodium It may reduce noncommunicable diseases NCDs such as cardiovascular diseases CVDs and chronic kidney disease by lowering blood pressureIt also lowers the risks of other conditions associated with high sodium intake such as gastric cancer As per the WHO every year 80 Lakh people die due to poor diet Of these 19 lakh deaths are attributable to high sodium intakeldquoHigh sodium concentration is associated with higher blood pressure level Longterm impact leads to hypertension and heart diseaserdquo Dr Harshal R Salve Additional professor Centre for community medicine at AIIMS New Delhi saidThe WHO guidelines reiterated to reduce sodium intake to less than 2 grams per day equivalent to about 5 grams of salt It also recommended doing away with table salt as it continues to cut down sodium intake And it also urged people to partially replace table salt with potassiumThe guideline also provides evidenceinformed guidance on the use of lowersodium salt substitutes LSSS LSSS are alternatives to regular salt both for discretionary use as salt added to foods by the consumer during cooking or when eating and for nondiscretionary use as an ingredient present in manufactured foods and foods served at restaurants and other outofhome settingsThese are also used in sodiumcontaining condiments such as soy sauce and fish sauce which are common discretionary sources of dietary sodium in some countries These alternative salts contain less sodium than regular salt and often include potassium chloride KCl with or without other agents to achieve a flavour similar to regular saltThe replacement of some of the Sodium by KCl may provide advantages compared with regular salt in addition to the sodiumlowering effect because WHO recommends increasing potassium intake from food sources to reduce blood pressure and risk of CVDsldquoLSSC like potassium may provide good alternative should be promotedrdquo Salve said adding that ldquoscaling up needs a more regulatory approach particularly for packaged food itemsrdquoThe new recommendation however does not apply to women children or people living with kidney impairments There wasnrsquot enough data to suggest the use of potassiumbased salts in these groupsProf Vivekanand Jha Executive Director The George Institute for Global Health India urged to ldquomake the lowsodium potassiumenriched salts affordable and easily availablerdquoThis will help ldquofight the growing problem of hypertension and heart and kidney disease in India especially in rural areasrdquo he addedJha also emphasised the need to generate evidence on the safety and efficacy of salt substitutes in special populations such as those with kidney diseasesConcerns have been raised about the safety of LSSS that contain potassium because too high a level of blood potassium hyperkalaemia may be harmful especially to individuals with impaired kidney functionThe WHO noted that ldquoit is important to systematically review existing evidence on the health effects of LSSS intakeThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever