Kidney Patients Eating Twice as Much Salt as They Should
Findings underscore need for everyone to eat less sodium to protect their health
(New York, NY) – Most Americans are recognizing that eating too much salt is bad for you, but a new study suggests that people at especially high risk from heavy sodium intake—those with kidney failure—may not be getting the message. The findings are published in the March issue of the Journal of Renal Nutrition, a National Kidney Foundation (NKF) journal. March is National Kidney Month and March 10 is World Kidney Day, when the NKF will be highlighting the need to reduce salt intake and the link between excess salt, high blood pressure and kidney disease.
The report showed that dialysis patients were eating about twice as much salt as recommended.
According to the National Kidney Foundation, dialysis patients should consume no more than 2,000 to 3,000 milligrams of sodium (5 to 7.5 grams of salt) daily. But dialysis patients in the new study reported consuming an average of 10.6 grams of salt daily (about 4,200 milligrams of sodium). And nearly 9 grams came from salt people had added to their food.
“These results point to the need for specifically–designed educational interventions aimed at reducing added salt and discouraging consumption of foods with high salt content,” the study’s authors, Maria–Cecilia B. J. Gallani, PhD, and colleagues from the University of Campinas in Sao Paulo, Brazil, conclude.
“While the current study focuses on an especially vulnerable population, all of us risk harming our health when we consume too much salt, and most of us eat much more salt than we should,” commented Dr. Kerry Willis, Senior Vice President for Scientific Activities at the National Kidney Foundation. “That’s why the National Kidney Foundation has joined the National Salt Reduction Initiative, in which dozens of health organizations are collaborating to cut Americans’ salt intake by at least 20 percent over the next five years.”
“While current guidelines recommend that people 40 and older, African Americans, and individuals with hypertension eat no more than 1,500 milligrams of sodium daily (and those who don’t fall into those categories limit sodium intake to 2,300 milligrams), the average U.S. man eats around 4,100 milligrams of sodium every day, and women eat 2,900 milligrams on average,” said Dr. Willis.
In addition to boosting blood pressure to unhealthy levels, high sodium consumption can impair kidney function and even cause permanent kidney damage. Heavy salt intake can also make drugs used to treat high blood pressure and kidney disease less effective. For patients on dialysis, higher salt intake has been linked to greater weight gain between blood–filtering sessions, which in turn has been directly tied to an increased risk of dying from heart disease.
Dr. Gallani and her colleagues conducted their study to understand why some dialysis patients are more likely to follow guidelines on salt reduction than others. While older and less educated patients added more salt to their food, the researchers found, they were less likely to eat salty prepared foods like instant noodles. Younger, more educated people ate more high–sodium prepared foods. Overall, however, more educated people tended to eat less salt, while the older a person was, the more likely he or she was to be heavy salt consumers.
The researchers also found that the longer a person had been on dialysis, the more likely they were to cite barriers to following a low–sodium diet, for example that it made it difficult to go to restaurants or it made food less tasty.
In the United States, people get 80 percent of the salt they consume from packaged or restaurant foods, which underscores how tough it can be to eat a low sodium diet—and how easy it can be to wind up eating way too much salt.
More than 26 million Americans have chronic kidney disease and millions more are at risk. Currently, over 87,000 people are awaiting kidney transplant in this country and over 381,000 depend on dialysis treatment to stay alive.
The National Kidney Foundation is dedicated to preventing and treating kidney and urinary tract diseases, improving the health and well being of individuals and families affected by these diseases and increasing availability of all organs for transplantation.
For more information about kidney disease, high blood pressure or salt consumption contact the National Kidney Foundation at www.kidney.org
The National Kidney Foundation thanks the following sponsors for their support:
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