Recent research has revealed a substantial correlation between life expectancy and the frequency with which salt is added to meals, which may represent a person’s long-term salt taste preference and sodium consumption. For a study, researchers investigated if the frequency of salting meals affected the chance of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD).
Over 176,570 people in the UK Biobank who were originally CVD-free were included in the investigation. Cox proportional hazards models were utilized to calculate the correlation between the frequency of salting meals and incident CVD events.
A total of 9,963 CVD events, 6,993 ischemic heart disease (IHD) cases, 2,007 stroke cases, and 2,269 heart failure cases were recorded over a median follow-up period of 11.8 years. After controlling for confounders and the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet, salt consumption was shown to be substantially correlated with a decreased risk of all CVD events (a modified DASH score was used without considering sodium intake). The adjusted HRs were 0.81 (95% CI: 0.73-0.90), 0.79 (95% CI: 0.71-0.87), and 0.77 (95% CI: 0.70-0.84) for the groups of usually, sometimes, & never/rarely, respectively (P trend< 0.001). These values were compared to the group that always added salt to foods. When compared to other CVD subtypes, adding salt had the highest correlation with heart failure (P< trend 0.001), followed by IHD (P trend <0.001), but not stroke. They discovered the lowest CVD risk among people who paired a DASH-style diet with an infrequent salt intake.
According to the research, less frequent salting of food was linked to a lower risk of CVD, especially heart failure and IHD.
Reference: jacc.org/doi/10.1016/j.jacc.2022.09.039
