Cooking with a salt substitute might lead to blander food, but it could lower the risk of premature death and cardiovascular disease.
Those are the findings of a new systematic analysis that was published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine, according to CNN. Researchers examined 16 controlled trials with 35,251 people with an average age of about 64 and an above-average risk of cardiovascular disease. The trials compared common salt — about 100% sodium chloride with iodine added occasionally — and a salt substitute made of 25% to 30% potassium chloride and 60% to 75% sodium chloride.
“We are excited to be able to provide evidence that salt substitutions are effective for improving cardiovascular outcomes when used long-term, up to 10 years,” said Dr. Loai Albarqouni, the study’s senior author and an assistant professor at the Institute for Evidence-Based Healthcare at Bond University in Australia. “Previous synthesis tended to focus on short-term outcomes, lasting only two weeks.”
The authors also discovered a link between salt substitution and a reduction in sodium in urine and lowered blood pressure — an impact comparable to that of blood pressure drugs, which Albarqouni said may account for the decreased mortality risk. Most of the trials examined took place in China; the remainder were in the Netherlands, Norway, Taiwan, Peru, and the United Kingdom.
Albarqouni said diets that are heavy on packaged or restaurant food likely include too much sodium. Bloating, swelling, fatigue, elevated blood pressure and increased thirst and/or urination are symptoms that might signal you’re consuming too much sodium.
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