Children as young as four are eating so much salt that they are suffering from high blood pressure, it was revealed yesterday.

Parents are being urged to cut down their children’s daily salt intake to prevent them suffering heart disease or strokes as young adults.

The alert was raised by new research, published in The Journal of Hypertension, that found that children eating the highest amount of salt had the highest blood pressure.

Health campaigners are concerned that the high level of salt in the diets of children aged from four to 18 is fuelling the country’s obesity crisis.

Eating an extra gram a day resulted in significantly raised blood pressure, according to the study. Once high blood pressure had been established as a health problem in childhood it invariably continued into adulthood.

The research was based on data collated by the National Diet and Nutrition Survey of 2,127 young people in Britain, an official audit for the Department of Health.

Some 1,658 kept a diary of what they ate and drank and their salt intake and blood pressure was recorded.

The study found that for each extra gram of salt consumed by children there was a related increase of 0.44 mmHg (millimetres of mercury) in what is called systolic blood pressure.

Malcolm Law, of the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, said that the findings showed that the country needed a revolutionary approach to salt consumption.

Professor Law called on the food industry to do more to reduce salt content in food that is popular with children and teenagers. Even the amount in baby food was too high, he said.

Professor Law said: “The vast majority of children in this country are eating too much salt. Higher blood pressure is a marker for vascular damage and this shows it’s starting too early. Going into adulthood this is not totally irreversible, if people can have a ‘salt revolution’.”

The survey also found that children aged between four and eight who ate less than 4.5g of salt a day had a systolic blood pressure measuring 2mmHg lower than those of the same age group eating more than 5.5g of salt.

Mike Mead, of the Blood Pressure Association, said: “If we are going to prevent a future epidemic of hypertension, the more that can be done to educate families about taking some simple steps to leading a healthier lifestyle the better.”

Healthy eating

Recommended daily maximum:
0-6 months less than 1g
7-12 months 1 gram
1-3 years 2 grams
4-6 years 3 grams
7-10 years 5 grams
11-14 years 6 grams
Adults 6 grams

Source: Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition

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