Salting less could prevent 5,300 deaths a year in Canada

(Image: Pixabay CC0) - This figure represents around 9% of deaths caused by cardiovascular disease in Canada each year. Reducing our salt intake to the level recommended by public health authorities could prevent up to 5,300 deaths per year in Canada. This is the conclusion reached by a research team at the end of a study evaluating the impact of different scenarios for reducing sodium consumption on the health of the Canadian population. The team's work, led by Mary L'Abbe of the University of Toronto, was published in the journal Plos One . To arrive at this estimate, the research team, which includes Professor Marie-ève Labonté , from the School of Nutrition, Institute of Nutrition and Functional Foods, and Centre NUTRISS - Nutrition, Health and Society at Université Laval, used the results of the nutritional component of the 2015 Canadian Community Health Survey, conducted by Statistics Canada. This survey contains information on the type and quantity of food consumed on a given day by some 20,000 people living in Canada. The researchers then estimated the amount of sodium (note: 1 mg of sodium corresponds to 2.5 mg of salt) consumed by these individuals by cross-referencing the results of the Statistics Canada survey with a database, compiled at the University of Toronto, which documents the nutritional composition of over 17,000 pre-packaged foods sold in Canada.