November 2/London/Daily Mail -- Heart disease could be cut by almost a fifth if food companies were banned from adding too much salt to their products, research has found. Banning manufacturers from adding salt to ready meals, cereals, crisps and sandwiches would save tens of thousands of lives a year by lowering the number of heart attacks and strokes, it claims.
A major study has found such laws would be 20 times more effective in improving health than offering dietary advice. Heart attacks and strokes are by far the biggest killers in Britain, claiming 230,000 lives every year, but experts say up to a fifth of these deaths could be prevented by eating less salt, which increases blood pressure and the risk of heart disease.