Canada’s leading health groups are urging food makers to slash sodium levels in processed foods from bread to frozen chicken nuggets to reduce an “epidemic” of high blood pressure gripping the country.

Forty-six per cent of women and 38 per cent of men over age 60 need to take blood pressure lowing drugs to prevent stroke, heart and kidney disease.

Lowering sodium consumption to healthy levels would reduce the number of Canadians with hypertension by almost one in three — or more than one million fewer hypertensives in the country, says Dr. Norm Campbell, of Blood Pressure Canada.

“The individual can only do so much and now more food companies have to step up,” says Dr. Kevin Willis, director of the Canadian Stroke Network. “If we discovered that a food additive was causing 30 per cent of all cancers, something would be done right away. The same action is needed with sodium to prevent stroke, heart disease and other vascular illnesses.”

Federal Health Minister Tony Clement Thursday announced the creation of a sodium working group to look at ways to cut sodium additives in foods.

Most Canadians consume more than twice the healthy level of dietary sodium, Senator Wilbert Keon told an Ottawa news conference, “the bulk of which is in products like breads, cereals, soups, processed foods and fast foods.”

“The result is an epidemic of high blood pressure that leads to strokes, heart disease, kidney disease and other chronic conditions.”

And it’s not just adults who have to worry, experts say. Recent evidence shows sodium is harmful to children, causing high blood pressure and damage to blood vessels.

“In my own work as a heart surgeon I’ve seen the impact of a poor diet on diseased and damaged hearts,” Keon said.

The coalition of 17 health groups, which includes the Canadian Stroke Network, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and the Canadian Medical Association, is urging the federal government to set graduated targets for sodium levels and to track and report on progress by 2012 and 2016.

They also want Canadians educated on the health risks of high dietary sodium and how to reduce consumption by reading labels, choosing fresh food over processed food and keeping the salt shaker off the kitchen table.

Source: Canada.com