HEALTH NEWS

Study Title:

Sodium Intake in Populations: Assessment of Evidence.

Study Abstract

This chapter reviews and assesses new evidence for associations between dietary sodium intake and outcomes published in the peer-reviewed literature through 2012. The health outcomes reviewed by the committee include cardiovascular disease (CVD), including stroke CVD mortality and all-cause mortality, congestive heart failure (CHF), chronic kidney disease (CKD), diabetes, cancer, and “other” outcomes, such as asthma and depression.

An estimated 76.4 million adults 20 years of age and older in the United States have high blood pressure (Roger et al., 2011). Mean dietary intake of sodium among the general U.S. population averages 3,400 mg daily, while federal nutrition policy guidance, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010 (HHS and USDA, 2010a), recommends sodium intakes of less than 2,300 mg daily for adolescents and adults 14 years of age and older, and 1,500 mg daily for African Americans, individuals 51 years of age and older, and individuals with hypertension, diabetes, or CKD. Evidence underlying this recommendation can be found in a number of sources, including the report Dietary Reference Intakes for Water, Sodium, Chloride, and Sulfate (IOM, 2005), and the Report of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010 (DGAC) (HHS and USDA, 2010b). Excess dietary sodium has been identified as a potential etiologic risk factor for CVD, based on evidence for a dose-dependent increase in blood pressure in response to increasing sodium intake, as well as evidence from studies published before 2003 of sodium intake and risk of stroke or coronary heart disease (IOM, 2005).