A research team, led by Dr. Monique Tan from the Queen Mary University of London, analyzed how much people in China should reduce their daily salt intake to lower their risk of cardiovascular disease and found that reducing salt intake by just 1 gram per day could reduce 9 million cardiac events and save 4 million lives by 2030.
For this study, researchers used computer modeling to find out how much salt reduction is necessary for Chinese citizens to see a major health benefit. The Chinese consume 11 g of salt daily, which is twice higher than mentioned in the WHO recommendations.
Dr. Ernst von Schwarz, a board-certified cardiologist in Los Angeles, who was not involved in the current study, comments on the results: “Salt intake, in general, has been associated with hypertension and increased cardiovascular risk factors which in turn lead to atherosclerosis, heart disease, and cardiovascular death, which represents the number one cause of death in the world.”