In the UK, people are advised to eat less ham, bacon and cheese to reduce their salt intake and thus the risk of heart attack or stroke.
Eating foods high in salt contributes to high blood pressure, which is the biggest cause of preventable death in the country. According to the charity Blood Pressure UK, up to 4 million Britons may have undiagnosed high blood pressure.
The condition is of great concern to doctors because there are no obvious symptoms and the disease often goes undetected unless a person undergoes tests or develops a serious health condition such as a heart attack.
“It’s hard to believe that a little bit of salt can have such an impact on our health, especially when it risks raising our blood pressure,” said Phil Pyatt, the charity’s chief executive. “Given this, we urge all adults of all ages to monitor their blood pressure and take control of their health, along with simple diet and lifestyle changes such as eating less salt, more fruit and vegetables and more exercise.”
The NHS advises people to consume no more than 6g of salt per day. Average intake fell from over 9g to around 8g in the 2000s, but has remained largely unchanged since then.
Treating high blood pressure, or hypertension, costs the NHS in England more than £2 billion a year 2014the last time such figures were published.
In sobering news for bacon lovers, Blood Pressure UK said there was typically around 3g of salt in every 100g of the product. It cited Morrison’s smoked streaky bacon as containing almost double that, at 5.6g.
“A two-slice bacon sandwich with ketchup would provide one-third of your daily salt limit,” the report said. “And if you add two extra slices, you’ll reach half of your recommended salt limit in one meal.”
According to the charity, people should limit their salt intake by not adding it to food, avoiding stock cubes, gravy and soy sauce, and limiting their intake of processed foods.
The estimate of 4 million undiagnosed patients in the UK is consistent with NHS England data and research published last year by the Office for National Statistics. It estimated that 32% of adults in England had high blood pressure, and that 29% of them had not been diagnosed.
NHS England pointed to a new initiative it will be launched soon, offering people a blood pressure check at dental care or an eye test, to show how it tries to detect undiagnosed hypertension. It said more than 1 million checks had been carried out by pharmacies in the past year.
It is estimated that 1.28 billion adults worldwide have hypertension and in 80% of cases the condition is not well controlled.