STEPHEN LEWIS finds how consumer power could lead to a healthier,

low-salt diet

TOO much salt is bad for you.

Unless you were living on the moon, you'd have heard on Tuesday - Salt Awareness Day - that salt has been linked to heart disease, strokes, high blood pressure, gastric cancer and osteoporosis.

Despite this, says Salt Day's co-ordinator, pressure group Consensus Action on Salt and Health (CASH), cutting down on our use of salt is the "forgotten" ingredient in many healthy diets.

Britons typically consume between nine and 12g of salt a day, up to twice the recommended daily intake of 6g. That's despite research showing that cutting salt consumption by one third could reduce the risk of strokes by 22 per cent and heart attacks by 16 per cent.

But knowing that too much salt is bad for you is one thing; doing something about it is another. Up to 80 per cent of our average salt consumption per day comes from the processed foods - from ready meals, tinned foods and pasta sauces to bread and even cereal - that in today's busy world we seem unable to do without.

That's particularly worrying because many of these foods are what our children like most - and children are even less able to cope with too much salt than adults.

So is there a way we can cut down on our salt intake simply and easily?

Maybe. One good step is to reduce the amount of salt used in cooking. Nutritionist Gaynor Bussell, who helped CASH coordinate this year's Salt Awareness Day, says using "lo-salt" brands is a good start. They use potassium, a more healthy mineral, instead of sodium, and contain about one third as much sodium as ordinary salt. Don't make the mistake of thinking sea salt is a healthier option than ordinary salt, however - it isn't, though it may taste different.

A better option than using lo-salt, however, Gaynor says, is to reduce or cut out salt in your cooking altogether. A liking for salty food is an acquired taste, she says. Stop using it, and your food may taste flat for a while - typically about three weeks - but then you will get used to it.

All well and good: but, by CASH's own admission, four-fifths of the salt in our daily diet comes from ready-prepared, processed foods. If we don't have time to give those up, how can we make a real difference to the amount of salt we consume?

Actually, quite easily. The first step is to be aware. Our handy salt calculator gives an indication of the amount of salt in some staple foods. Things to avoid if possible include canned beans, ketchups and sauces, packet soups, salty snacks and flavour enhancers such as stock cubes, gravy granules and soy sauce.

However, so-called "healthy" foods such as brown bread and cereal are also high in salt content. In fact, a "healthy" diet of a high-fibre breakfast cereal, soup and wholemeal bread for lunch and a ready-made vegetable lasagne and salad in the evening would contain more than 13g of salt - well over the recommended daily level. Ironically, when it comes to bread, it is often cheap, sliced white loaves that have the lowest salt content.

The good news is that many manufacturers and supermarkets are beginning to listen to consumers' concerns, and are introducing low-salt ranges.

Failing that, it is a case of looking at the labels on products, and calculating the amount of salt contained. That way, you can also compare products to find one that is lower in salt. Salt content is usually given as milligrams (mg) of sodium per 100g. To find out how much salt that is, you have to multiply by 2.5. So if a cereal contains for example 1,000mg (1g) of sodium per 100g, that is in fact 2,500mg (2.5g) of salt. If you buy your bread fresh-baked from a bakery, it won't, of course, have a label on it showing salt content. But there's nothing to stop you asking the baker if they bake a low-salt loaf: and if they don't, suggesting they start. Pester power does work, Gaynor says. "Consumers should vote with their feet".

Helpful tips:

- Don't use salt in your food. Use herbs, spices, chilli, pepper or vinegar instead - or lo-salt if you must

- Avoid flavour enhancers like stock cubes, gravy granules and soy sauce

- Cut down on canned beans, ketchups and sauces, packet soups and salty snacks

- Try to reduce the amount of processed foods you eat and include more fresh foods in your diet, such as fresh meat, fruit and veg

- Ask your supermarket for advice on low-salt food ranges

Check the labels to compare salt content and make a simple salt calculation to work out how much salt you are consuming.

Updated: 09:28 Thursday, January 31, 2002