Study says kids are eating too much salt

A study of British children and teenagers shows a significant association of salt intake with systolic blood pressure.

The study of more than 1,600 children ages 4 to 14, published in the Journal of Human Hypertension, found that the more salt children ate, the higher their blood pressure became, The Scotsman newspaper said Friday.

Researchers from St George's University of London based their findings on data collected in Britain's National Diet and Nutrition Survey. They found that for each extra gram of salt eaten, there was a related increase in systolic blood pressure.

"This is an important finding which confirms that eating more salt increases blood pressure in childhood and also adds extra weight to the current public health campaign to reduce salt in the (British) diet," epidemiologist Malcolm Law of the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine said in a release from the Consensus Action on Salt and Health.

Law said reducing salt intake in childhood is likely to translate into lower levels of blood pressure in adulthood and reduce the risk of developing heart disease and stroke.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International