If you like to eat food with some flavor, you don’t need to use salt. Find out why you should be choosing salt substitutes.
According to a recent study, substituting your salt may help add years to your life. In fact, a global study appearing in the journal Heart shows that salt substitutes may lower the risk of premature death from heart disease by 13%.
Furthermore, they may also reduce heart attacks and strokes by 11%. “The magnitude of the cardiovascular protection afforded is likely to be determined by the magnitude of the fall in blood pressure,” says co-author Maoyi Tian of Harbin Medical University in China.
Salt and Blood Pressure
“Blood pressure-mediated beneficial effects of salt substitute on clinical outcomes appear likely to be accrued across a broad range of populations without adverse effects,” says Tian. “These findings are unlikely to reflect the play of chance and support the adoption of salt substitutes in clinical practice and public health policy as a strategy to reduce dietary sodium intake, increase dietary potassium intake, lower blood pressure and prevent major cardiovascular events.”
These results are based on results accumulated from 21 clinical trials with nearly 30,000 participants throughout Europe, South East Asia, the Western Pacific Region, and the Americas. Moreover, the results show that salt substitutes lowered blood pressure in all the participants.
High Blood Pressure Worldwide
According to the authors, around 14.4 million people in the U.K. (one in four adults) have high blood pressure (hypertension). Furthermore, around 116 million people in the U.S. (one in two adults) have hypertension. In addition, about a third of people go undiagnosed, according to the study authors.
“Excess dietary sodium and insufficient dietary potassium are both well-established causes of high blood pressure,” says Tian. “Randomized trials demonstrate that reduced dietary sodium consumption or potassium supplementation lowers blood pressure. Sodium-reduced, potassium-enriched salt substitutes, in which [potassium chloride replaces] a proportion of the sodium chloride in regular salt… combine these blood pressure-lowering effects.”
Lowering Blood Pressure
Heart disease is the leading cause of death around the world and is responsible for around 18 million lives lost per year. High blood pressure is a significant risk factor for developing heart disease. Therefore, if you want to decrease your heart disease risk, you need to maintain healthy blood pressure levels.
Substituting the salt you use is an easy and convenient first step in reducing your blood pressure. You can also use herbs and spices to flavor your food instead of salt. In addition to eating healthily, you can exercise regularly and take supplements like L-arginine Plus.
As a heart supplement, its ingredients effectively promote circulation, blood pressure health, energy levels, and more. If you’re ready to give your blood pressure the support it needs, then start limiting your salt intake, exercising regularly, and taking L-arginine Plus.