Cutting Salt 40 Percent Could Save Half-Million Americans From Premature Death by 2015

Some say you should take life with a grain of salt, and that's certainly what the experts are saying, too.

According to research, steadily reducing sodium in the foods we buy and eat could save a half-million Americans from dying premature deaths over a decade. And cutting your salty side to less than 2,200 milligrams per day, or a 40 percent drop from current levels, could boost the tally of lives saved over 10 years to 850,000, researchers have projected according to the American Heart Association.

New estimates published Tuesday in the American Heart Assn.'s journal Hypertension, show results of three separate team's numbers at the request of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Researchers from UC San Francisco, Harvard University's School of Public Health and Simon Fraser University in Canada came at their estimates independently, but found that their results converged.

If the average daily sodium intake of Americans were to drop instantaneously to 1,500 milligrams per day, what is considered the "ideal" sodium intake, as many as 1.2. premature deaths could be averted over the course of a decade, the teams agreed. 

Reports show that Americans currently consume about 3,600 milligrams of sodium daily that is often hidden in processed foods such as soups, cereals, breads and soups. And while the link between sodium intake and high blood pressure is debated, research suggests that high-sodium diets can push blood pressure above safe limits and exacerbate high blood pressure, according to the American Heart Association. However, lowering sodium consumption tends to lower blood pressure, and that's important because 45 percent of cardiovascular disease in the United States is attributed to high blood pressure. 

The researchers have called for the average American to reduce their sodium intake by 40 percent, which they believe could avert 280,000 to 500,000 deaths per year, according to the journal.

Many companies are also getting involved helping out to shave the amount of sodium in their products, including ConAgra, which makes Chef Boyardee and Marie Callender's products, according to a New York Times article. It's actually following its own 2009 commitment to shave the amount of sodium in its foods by 20 percent by 2015.

"No matter how we look at it, the story is the same--there will be huge benefits to reducing sodium," says Pam Coxson, a UCSF mathematician who is the study's lead author from an article in the Los Angeles Times.