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-The Times of India
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<em>MUMBAI: </em>The urban Indian's diet, pickled with takeaways from fast-food joints and instant foods that are ready in a jiffy at the end of a long working day, could worsen the present epidemic of hypertension due to its high proportion of salt. In a city where every fourth adult is believed to have hypertension, experts said the focus should be on reducing salt intake in the daily diet.
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Around 21% of Indians are generally believed to have hypertension, while studies have shown that Mumbai's figure is higher at 25%.
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Hypertension means increased blood pressure in the body's blood vessels. This increased pressure can, over the years, weaken organs, precipitate heart attacks and kidney failure and trigger a brain stroke. Increased levels of sodium, a key element of the body, can play a great role in causing hypertension. The World Health Organization (WHO), in fact, has chosen to focus on hypertension as its theme for World Health Day on Sunday.
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&quot;There is hidden salt in the Indian plate, right from papads to pickle,&quot; said endocrinologist Shashank Joshi. The hidden salt, along with salt we liberally add to food, worsens the plight for Indians as far as blood pressure is concerned. A study he worked on in 2009-10, of 16,000 patients visiting doctors' clinics, showed that 56% of those in Maharashtra had hypertension as compared to the all-India figure of 46%.
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Experts say that Indians consume up to 6 to 8 grams of salt daily, while the Indian health ministry hypertension guidelines say that only 2.4 grams is recommended.
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It isn't excess salt intake alone that heightens an Indian's chances of getting hypertension, it's also the Indian build. &quot;Indians have thinner blood vessels than Caucasians, leading to different salt sensitivity among the two groups. Hence, the Indian blood vessel's ability to handle salt is lower than others,&quot; said Joshi, who practises at Lilavati Hospital in Bandra.
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A study done in Chennai in 2007 found that an increased intake of 1.5 to 2 grams of salt was associated with an increase in high and low blood-pressure by approximately 1mm Hg (the unit to measure blood pressure).
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&quot;The risk of cardiovascular disease rises with blood pressure throughout the normotensive (normal) blood-pressure range and almost 60% of coronary heart disease events and 45 to 50% of strokes occur in those with high normal blood-pressure,&quot; said the study conducted by Dr V Mohan of Chennai.
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Any reduction in salt intake brings about a healthy change as far as hypertension is concerned. The Chennai study, which was published in JAPI (Journal of Association of Physicians of India), found that a reduction in intake of sodium by 1.2 grams daily would lead to a 50% reduction in the number of people requiring anti-hypertensive therapy. The lower intake could also mean a 22% reduction in the number of deaths due to stroke and a 16% reduction in the number of deaths due to coronary artery disease.
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Incidentally, if one sticks to the traditional Indian diet, hypertension wouldn't be such a problem. Dr Jagmeet Madan, principal of the SNDT College for Nutrition, Juhu, said, &quot;If you stick to the traditional Indian diet, you will never go higher on salt.&quot; The problem creeps in when additions creep in to the Indian thali. &quot;Adding chutneys, pickles and papads sends the salt balance haywire,&quot; she said.
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So, processed foods should be kept as &quot;sometime foods&quot; instead of everyday foods.
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