According to the results of a recent study, this very common eating habit should be banned now if we want to increase our life expectancy.
At the table, habits die hard… One of the most common is the fact to add salt to each of our plates, sometimes without even having tasted his dish. As the results of researchers from the Tulane University School of Public Health reveal, this habit is ban as soon as possible, as they found that people who add extra salt to their food have a higher risk of premature death. Indeed, according to their report, those who have this eating habit have a 28% increased risk of dying prematurely from any cause, compared to those who never or rarely added any. By way of example, the researchers explain that a 50-year-old person who has the habit of always adding salt to his dishes (processed or not), could lose 2.28 years of life expectancy, if it is a man, and a year and a half if it is a woman.
“Our study is the first to assess the relationship between the addition of salt to foods and premature death. This provides new evidence to support recommendations to modify eating behaviors to improve health. Even a modest reduction in sodium intake, by adding less or no salt to foods at the table, is likely to result in substantial health benefits”, explained Dr. Lu Qi, the lead author of the study. The World Health Organization recommends consuming less than 5 g of salt per day, but in Europe the average is between 8 and 19 g per day. In addition to completely stopping the addition of sodium to your plates, what should be done to reduce the risk of premature death?
These foods to consume in large quantities to reduce the risk of premature death
During their study based on more than 500,000 individualsthe researchers found that those who consumed lots of fruits and vegetables saw the risks linked to reduced life expectancy reduced: “We weren’t surprised by this finding because fruits and vegetables are major sources of potassium, which has protective effects and is associated with a lower risk of premature death.” Indeed, the European Society of Cardiology specifies on this subject that “potassium is known to protect against the risk of heart disease and metabolic diseases such as diabetes, while sodium increases the risk of cancer, high blood pressure and stroke”.
You understand, you should avoid systematically adding salt to your disheseat less processed products, and eat enough fruits and vegetables to be healthy and increase your life expectancy!