Daily allowance of salt in just one pizza

Friday, 23 March 2012 2:37 PM

Did you know there may br more than 10 grams of salt in just one takeaway pizza? Research released for National Salt Awareness Week found that takeaway pizzas have up to two and a half times more salt than the average supermarket pizza.

75% of the salt we eat is hidden in our food, so it is well worth reading the label closely during your weekly shop and avoiding eating out, where you cannot control how much salt is used.

“It’s a national disgrace that our health is put at risk; the government is not taking enough action to reduce the amount of salt in the takeaway sector. The supermarkets have made the same pizzas with much less salt – showing how easy it would be for the whole sector to make big salt reductions," said Professor Graham MacGregor, Wolfson Institute, Chairman of CASH. “Salt puts up our blood pressure, the highest risk factor for stroke. Reducing our intake would save thousands of people suffering and dying from a stroke.”

Researchers for Consensus Action on Salt and Health (CASH) and the Association of London Environmental Health Managers (ALEHM) found that Pizza Express supermarket pizza contains almost half the salt of the takeaway version. Less than one in five supermarket pizzas are classified as ‘high’ in salt but as many as two in three are ‘high’ in saturated fat. 
 

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