Photo: Chris Radburn/PA WirePhoto: Chris Radburn/PA Wire

A dip in people’s salt consumption has played an “important role” in the plummeting number of heart disease deaths, researchers have said.

Between 2003 and 2011 average salt intake in England decreased by around 15 per cent while the number of deaths from heart disease reduced by 40 per cent and stroke deaths fell by 42 per cent, their study found.

The reduction in salt intake is likely to have played a key role in the dip in deaths, according to the research.

But the authors cautioned that the average salt consumption around the country is still far too high and said that more needs to be done to reduce people’s salt intake.

They said that a reduction in salt reduces blood pressure – which is a major risk factor for heart disease.

The research, published in the journal BMJ Open, examined 31,500 people’s risk of high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease from Health Survey England results in 2003, 2006, 2008 and 2011.

The researchers noted falls in blood pressure, cholesterol, smoking rates and an increase in fruit and vegetable consumption.

But there was a rise in average body mass index (BMI) rates.

Meanwhile salt intake was measured from 3,000 people taking part in the National Diet and Nutrition Survey between 2003 and 2011.

Using urine samples for analysis, they found that during this period salt consumption decreased by 1.4g a day - a 15 per cent dip.

The authors, from Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry and Queen Mary University, London, said: “It is likely that several factors, that is, the fall in blood pressure, total cholesterol and smoking prevalence, the reduction in salt intake and the increase in the consumption of fruit and vegetables, along with improvements in the treatment of blood pressure, cholesterol and cardiovascular disease, contributed to a decrease in stroke and ischaemic heart disease mortality.”

They added: “The reduction in salt intake is likely to be an important contributor to the falls in blood pressure in England from 2003 to 2011.

“As a result, the decrease in salt intake would have played an important role in the reduction in stroke and ischaemic heart disease mortality during this period.

“Despite considerable progress being made on salt reduction, the mean salt intake in England (8.1 g/day in 2011) was still 35 per cent higher than the recommended level of 6g/day, and 70 per cent of the adult population (80 per cent men and 58 per cent women) had a daily salt intake above the recommended level. Therefore, continuing and much greater efforts are needed to achieve further reductions in salt intake to prevent the maximum number of stroke and ischaemic heart disease deaths.”

Victoria Taylor, senior dietician at the British Heart Foundation, said: “While the reductions in average intakes of salt are a positive change, we mustn’t forget that they are still well above the recommended maximum of 6g a day for adults.

“As most of the salt we eat is already in our food, it is important that the food industry now works towards meeting the new salt reduction targets to make sure that we can continue to reduce the salt in our diet.”

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.