吃盐与身体健康的关系

钠，一种金属元素，质地软，能使水分解释放出氢。钠是人体肌肉和神经组织中的主要成分之一现。在高血压患者越来越多了，而有个非常重要的原因就是钠吸取过多了。

Reporter:

Beijing's Municipal Health Bureau says that Beijingers consume an average of 13.4 grams of salt per day. That's more than twice the amount recommended by the World Health Organization.

So they are campaigning restaurants and households to shake something else on their food. Low-sodium salt.

Now, low-sodium salt is not salt,  it's a salt substitute. High in POTASSIUM chloride and low in SODIUM chloride.

Shelley Beattie is a holistic nutritionist in Calgary, Canada. She says because these products are low in SODIUM, they CAN be a safer choice for people with blood pressure concerns. But she says these high-potassium salt substitutes aren't safe for everyone.

"IF an individual is on medication or has any sort of kidney dysfunction, what can happen is if they get too much potassium, they won't excrete it out of their body, and it can lead to all sorts of health problems like abnormal heart rhythms, muscle weakness and it can actually be fatal."

And, she says, like table salt, they are chemically processed.

"They can be bleached, dried, heated, a bunch of pollutants added…That's why I refer people on to a natural sea salt where you know that it's coming out of the ocean and it hasn't been refined or processed."

And Beattie says just changing the PRODUCT is a "band-aid solution" that can't solve Beijing's blood pressure crisis.

"You're not going to change your blood pressure just by putting in a low-salt additive. You need to look at the person's activity, whether they smoke, what their stress levels are."

She says rather than eating a DIFFERENT salt, people should just eat less salty food.

But Olivia Lee says salt substitutes shouldn't be tossed out just yet. She's a personal nutrition coach in Beijing. She says humans have a natural love of salt…especially Beijingers.

"The soups are salty, the vegetables are salty, and even the breads sometimes have salt added to them."

So she says people aren't likely to drop the habit overnight.

"Any change in salt preference requires two to four months of concerted salt reduction."

And Lee says the China Salt Substitute study showed the stuff can work. In 2009, the George Institute China tested low-sodium salt on 600 people with high blood pressure in rural China.

"And they found there was a lot of decrease in blood pressure and in clogged arteries which are also a big factor in heart disease."

Lee says the campaign could do some good for Beijingers with serious high blood pressure.

"Mandating using salt replacement may be a nice quick fix."

But she says, it can't be the ONLY fix.

"I think trying to get people to quit smoking, is a big one. Getting them to exercise and eat more vegetabes…would all work together."

Shelley Beattie also says that an education program for healthier lifestyle would be a more effective long-term fix to high blood pressure in Beijing. And she says that the number one factor in maintaining heart health is good old-fashioned stress management.

For CRI, I'm Allie Johnson.