02.Salt and high blood pressure High blood pressure is often
called the ‘silent killer’ because there are no obvious symptoms
— but the higher your blood pressure, the greater the risk of
having a stroke or heart attack. There’s now very good evidence
that too much salt is a major cause of high blood pressure: - A
high salt intake is associated with an increased risk of
developing high blood pressure as you get older. - If you
already have high blood pressure a low-salt diet can lower it. -
If you’re on blood-pressure-lowering medication, a low-salt diet
can boost the effect and you may be able to take less (but check
with your GP first). Shake the salt habit The National Health
and Medical Research Council’s Dietary Guidelines for Australian
Adults recommend that you choose foods low in salt and cut back
to no more than about 6 g of salt a day (a bit over a
teaspoonful, amounting to around 2.3 g of sodium). But it’s not
as easy as it sounds, because about 75% of the salt in many
people’s food comes hidden in