Children's Health

Salt in Kids’ Diets Linked to High Blood Pressure

Salt Bigger Problem for Overweight Kids continued...

“When you eat more calories, as kids who are overweight tend to do, you are almost certainly eating more salt,” he says. “This study tells us that sodium intake may be a bigger issue for kids who are overweight.”

Most of the sodium in the diets of kids and teens comes from processed foods, fast-food meals, and school lunches.

An earlier CDC study found that the typical school lunch contains 1,442 mg of sodium.

“Foods that you would never think of, such as breads and many breakfast cereals, are very high in salt,” he says. “If the food industry would get on board and gradually reduce the salt in their products, that could have a huge impact.”

Salt Industry Responds

Satin of the Salt Institute notes that findings from research like the CDC study that rely on participants to recall what they ate are widely viewed as unreliable, or as previously mentioned, what he calls “pseudo science.”

He adds that other aspects of the diets and lifestyles of overweight and obese children, such as eating too many calories or getting too little exercise, may have led to their high blood pressure.

The study will be published online today and will appear in the October issue of the American Heart Association journal Pediatrics.