I recently heard a news story on the radio that reported fast foods in Canada have more salt than those in other comparable countries; I wanted to see what I could find out about this important health topic.

When I googled “Salt in Canadian food”,  a lot of what I got were articles about Health Canada’s planned ‘war on salt’. These articles were often from 2006 or 2008 and they contained statistics on why such action would be a good idea. For example:

• On average, Canadians consume 3,100 milligrams of sodium daily. Almost 80% of this comes form processed food
• 85 per cent of Canadian men, and 60 per cent of women, consume more than the upper daily limit of 2,300 milligrams of sodium -- about one teaspoon of salt
• The Canadian Journal of Cardiology in 2007 concluded that reducing dietary sodium to ideal levels could eliminate hypertension in more than one million Canadians and save $430 million in direct health costs.
• Finland, which has aggressively reduced salt in food over three decades, has seen a 40-per-cent decline in average sodium intake. That decline has led to a large reduction in average blood pressure levels and an 80-per-cent drop in deaths due to stroke.