Reducing salt in childrens' diets

As health professionals, it’s important we talk to parents about choosing foods low in salt. In this feature article Dr Bruce Neal discusses the importance of reducing the salt in childrens’ diets.

Dietary Guidelines for Children and Adolescents¹ recommend choosing foods low in salt, because of the long term adverse effects of high salt intakes on health. The recently released results of the ‘Kids Eat Kids Play’ Survey ² has shown that this guideline is not being met with all children in the study consuming more salt than recommended.  As health professionals, it’s important we talk to parents and carers about salt's impact on health, its food sources, and how we can to keep it low while still maintaining food taste.  In this feature article of HeinzSight, Dr Bruce Neal discusses the importance of reducing the salt in childrens’ diets.

Download Dropping the salt in children's diets by Dr Bruce Neal (PDF)

1 NHMRC  Dietary Guidelines for Children and Adolescents in Australia. April 2003
2  Commonweatlth of Australia. 2007 Australian National Children’s Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey- Main Findings. www.health.gov.au/nutritonmonitoring