Obesity of Iodine

Excessive dietary salt (sodium chloride) intake is associated with an increased risk for hypertension, which in turn is especially a major risk factor for stroke and other cardiovascular pathologies, but also kidney diseases. Besides, high salt intake or preference for salty food is discussed to be positive associated with stomach cancer, and according to recent studies probably also obesity risk. On the other hand a reduction of dietary salt intake leads to a considerable reduction in blood pressure, especially in hypertensive patients but to a lesser extent also in normotensives as several meta-analyses of interventional studies have shown. Currently estimated dietary intake of salt is about 9-12 g per day in most countries of the world. These amounts are significantly above the WHO recommended level of less than 5 g salt per day. A weakness of dietary evaluations is that the salt content of many foods is not precisely known and information in nutrient databases are limited. A certain limitation of the urine assessment is that dietary sources contributing to salt intake cannot be identified.