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Action on Salt

Salt Awareness Week

Salt Awareness Week 2023

Reinvigorating the battle for salt reduction: Is it time to tax salt?

Mhairi Brown RNutr, Action on Salt, discusses with Open Access Government, why Britain needs to eat less salt and why a salt reduction programme is absolutely necessary...read more here

 

 

 

Empowering Chef’s to Reduce Salt  

Cooking a meal without salt! Any high-flying chef will tell you the same thing – “It’s bland. It needs more salt.”

At the London Early Years Foundation (LEYF) Chef Academy we teach chefs to let the natural flavours of meat, vegetables, herbs and spices do the talking. If you go back a few generations, not many families would use salt in their cooking. You would typically have your meat, potato and two vegetables. Thankfully, we have come away from that old routine, accepting more diverse cuisine into our lives. However, with more restaurants than ever and easily accessible “ready meals” and “fast food”, our salt intake has increased dramatically over the years... read more here

Let’s take action this Salt Awareness Week

This year we are celebrating our 24th Salt Awareness Week between the 15th and 21st May 2023.

Over the years, high quality research has shown a direct relationship between salt and high blood pressure. High blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart attacks and strokes, which are the biggest causes of death in the UK, with a person suffering from these often-debilitating conditions every 5 minutes.

It is important to note, that many of these cases can be prevented...read more here

Salt Awareness Week 2022

Written by our team of nutritionists, our latest blogs for Salt Awareness Week cover hidden salt, policy, salt reduction in the UK to date, and the need for more action. Thanks to Food Active, Little Dish, NewFood, Politics Home and Open Access Government for hosting our blogs

The Real Deal: are meal deals really worth it? 

With Covid-19 restrictions a thing of the past and many making their return to the workplace, lunchtime meal deals are making a comeback. In their heyday, 1 in 3 consumers reported buying one at least twice a week. And who could blame them? Their price and convenience make them hard to resist. But whilst they might be good for our pockets, are they good for our health?...read more

 

 

Can We Shake the Habit? 

At this year’s Food Integrity 2022 and to mark our 23rd Salt Awareness Week, Action on Salt will raise awareness of the need for salt reduction as a key cardiovascular prevention policy, highlighting the lack of progress under the UK Government’s current voluntary salt reduction programme, which has resulted in our salt intakes remaining unchanged for a decade... read more

 

 

 

Simply telling people to eat less salt does not work when our food is full of it

In this latest guest blog for Food Active to mark Salt Awareness Week 2022, Hattie reflects on the progress of salt reduction in the UK and shares some international examples, which provide insights into why and how more needs to be done to reduce salt intake in the UK....read more

 

 

 

 

The importance of starting good habits early on in life

Eating too much salt may sound like a concern for adults alone, but it's never too early to start to start thinking about your salt intake. Did you know your dietary habits and preferences track from childhood to adulthood? read more

 

 

 

It’s time for the tragedy of salt reduction to once again become the UK’s public health triumph

Despite evidence proving the negative effects of salt on health, it’s outrageous that food companies and chefs are still adding unnecessary levels of salt to food; putting their consumers’ health at risk. Since 2011, more than 95,000 people have died needlessly in the UK from excess salt, with costs to the UK economy topping £43bn. Isn’t it time we did something?...read more

 


 

 

Salt Awareness Week 2021

‘Falta o sal’ – my mum’s go to comment whenever I cooked her a meal. ‘It needs more salt’ 

When I started working at Action on Salt, I became immediately aware how much salt I had unknowingly been eating, and the damage it would potentially do to my health. I say unknowingly, because, well, it’s just that. There were no visible side effects and as I was in my 20’s my blood pressure was ‘normal’. But the damage it can do to us is silent slowly but surely raising... read more here

 


 

Salt Awareness Week 2020

 

Please don't turn vegan food into junk food

It wasn’t long ago that, for many, going vegan seemed both limiting and difficult. While their carnivorous and vegetarian friends were spoiled for choice with supermarket shelves full of indulgent snacks and pre-prepared meals, plus no end of... read more

 

On salt, ethical veganism, and the challenges of finding healthy food

On a rainy evening in January 2014, I decided to watch a documentary that changed my life forever. The documentary was “Vegucated” and it explained, among other things, how animals are kept in factory farms and killed for their meat. Some of the images shown were... read more

 

Playing Hide and Seek with Salt this Salt Awareness Week 

Very few of us consider the effect a high salt diet has on our health, most likely because it doesn’t manifest in quite the same way as sugar or fat, whereby excess consumption is visibly and quickly seen through... read more 

 

The History of Salt Reduction in the UK  

The UK’s world-leading salt reduction programme began in the early 1990s when the Committee on Medical Aspects of Food & Nutrition Policy (COMA)(1) advised that the UK
population was eating too much salt and should gradually reduce from 9g to 6g/day.(2) Responsibility for salt reduction policy was given to... read more

 

Salt Awareness Week 2020 

Salt Awareness Week is our chance to capture the public, government and food industry’s attention and raise awareness of the damaging impact salt has on health. Last year, we drew attention to salt levels in children’s meals finding... read more

 

Less Salt, More Flavour! 

Next week sees the start of Salt Awareness Week, an annual campaign aimed at, you guessed it, raising awareness about our salt consumption and why we have a problem on our hands, or rather our hearts... read more

 

Salt Awareness Week 2019

Written by our nutritionists, our latest blogs for Salt Awareness Week cover salt and health, salt reduction, policies and the future of salt. Thanks to Food Active, Eating Better and the British Nutrition Foundation!

Salt - Past Present and Future 

 

Action on Salt celebrates our 20th Salt Awareness Week on 4th – 10th March 2019. Every year since 2000, we have used this event to raise awareness of the levels of salt in food, and the effect salt has on our health. Whilst we do need some sodium in our diets, of which salt is by far the biggest contributor, we are consuming too much... read more 

 

The salty truth behind processed meat and meat alternatives 

When we talk about processed meat, the automatic thought is ‘unhealthy’ as it’s usually associated with cheaper, greasier and fattier meats. However, processed meat can also be high in salt, an ingredient many have forgotten about... read more 

 

Be salt aware: it’s still an important issue! 

The ancient practice of adding salt to food was primarily done for preservation and safety purposes in times when access to good quality fresh produce was sparse, and over its habitual use, we have acquired a salty preference... read more 

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