Old Salts: No, Not Sailors - Canadians

Who knew? Evidently processed food products in Canada are among the saltiest in the world. Is that what Canadian food processors believe Canadians want and crave? Or has the insidious practise of salting everything from seemingly-innocuous breakfast cereals to fast-food take-outs to give these otherwise-tasteless products some zing, accustomed us to a higher salt intake which we now accept as normal?

Whatever the case, it's proving inimical to the health and longevity of Canadians, particularly children. All the more troubling since it's generally accepted that Canadian children lack sufficient exercise throughout the course of their daily lives to maintain a healthy balance between food and activity. The result being a population of increasingly obese Canadian children.

For as Dr. Arya Sharma of the Canadian Obesity Network warns: "...obese children, or children who are battling overweight are even more sensitive to salt than thin children". The problem being that over-consumption of salt causes elevated blood pressure in children. The higher the blood pressure during childhood, the higher it becomes throughout adult life.

At risk is a future rife for the potential of experiencing heart disease and stroke.

Fast take-out establishments which devise menus meant specifically for children continue to douse their products with sodium to the extent that children's health prospectives are compromised. The consumption of commercially-produced chicken and hamburgers results in a far higher ingestion of salt than is considered safe, more than overtaking in one meal, the recommended daily total sodium intake.

"High blood pressure is by far the biggest risk factor for all kinds of diseases, not just strokes, but heart disease, kidney failure, retinal degeneration - I can go on and on", says Dr. Antoine Hakim, scientific director of the Ottawa-based Canadian Stroke Network. "Parents are pressed for time. All of us are pressed for time."

Salt is sodium and chloride. Its heavy ingestion impacts badly on the body, resulting in an imbalance across the muscles and blood vessels. It causes vessels to tighten, in turn making it difficult for blood to flow freely. Arteries eventually become compromised, permanently scarred.

Nothing will change the fact that parents are harried and hurried, with never enough time to pay attention to the basics of good food preparation. It's time-consuming and, for so many young parents of today, even outside their sphere of experience, having themselves relied for so long on fast-food and pre-prepared foods for daily meal consumption.

Here is where government can and should step in to regulate harmful substances in the production of everyday fast-food products. It's in everyone's best interests. The result being a lesser incidence of compromised health for children and adults, less strain on the health-care system; an overall healthier population.

Nanny state? So what.