BBC News reports that a "survey of nearly 700
popular meals served in celebrity chef and High Street restaurants found
half were high in salt - equivalent to a red traffic light label on a
supermarket product. From their research, Consensus Action on Salt and Health
(Cash) discovered that the 13 saltiest main meals contained more than
the maximum recommended daily intake of 6g of salt."
To give Consensus Action on Salt and Health its due, it keeps on
checking salt levels in various food products and in various
establishments that serve meals, and it keeps on bringing out reports
which draw attention to the continued high levels of salt that are
potentially harmful to consumers. Professor Graham MacGregor reminds us
that "Salt puts up our blood pressure, and as a result, thousands of
people die unnecessarily each year from strokes, heart attacks and heart
failure. Whilst efforts have been made by foods in supermarkets to
use less salt, chefs' preference for saltier foods is preventing further
progress. It's clear from our survey that some chefs are not listening
to their customers."
I just wish that, as well as drawing attention to high salt intake
increasing blood pressure and causing premature deaths from strokes,
heart attacks and heart
failure, health experts would inform people that salt intake is a major
factor in problems of obesity, child obesity and morbid obesity. This is especially the case for people who take or have taken prescribed steroids, HRT, antidepressants, some contraceptive medications, anti-convulsant/anti-epileptic drugs, anti-psychotics, and some other prescription drugs.
Read about how to lose weight by eating less salt and salty food.
Monday, March 11, 2013
Many restaurant meals contain too much salt
Posted by
Willow
at
5:44 pm
Labels: causes of obesity, child obesity, heart attacks, heart failure, high blood pressure, morbid obesity, premature deaths, prescription drugs, restaurant meals, Salt Intake, salty food, stroke
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Why is adding salt to food more harmful than in former years?
Posted by
Willow
at
3:05 pm
Labels: antidepressants, arthritis, child obesity, cut down on salt and salty food, Fluid Retention, high blood pressure, lose excess weight, Lose weight, Prescribed Steroids, Processed food, Salt, Salt Sensitivity
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Obesity: New Vulnerable Group
Posted by
Willow
at
9:36 pm
Labels: child obesity, drug industry, eat less salt, GM industry, GM mice, HRT, mice, obese mice, Obesity, PMT, pregnancy advice, Prescribed Steroids, Vulnerable Groups, vulnerable to salt
Thursday, December 08, 2011
Consumer Affairs lists Kelloggs and Quaker as Worst Children's Cereals
Posted by
Willow
at
5:12 pm
Labels: breakfast cereals, child health, child obesity, children and salt, children's food, Consumer Affairs, degenerative conditions, Junk Food, Kellogg's, risk of fractures, sugar
Sunday, September 25, 2011
The Warping of Wisdom: Evidence or Opinion?
Posted by
Willow
at
6:13 pm
Labels: Bupa, child obesity, Dr Briffa's blog, Exercise, exercise and childhood weight, John Reilly, Professor Terry Wilkin, weight loss
Tuesday, August 02, 2011
Salty food is very bad for babies and small children
If you harm a baby by feeding it salty food, the harm is permanent; you cannot undo that harm later.
Posted by
Willow
at
5:06 pm
Labels: baked beans, bread, child health, child obesity, children and salt, cow's milk, eating less salt and salty food, fat babies, salt in bread
Friday, July 15, 2011
High salt/sodium intake is a major cause of heart disease, hypertension and stroke
High salt/sodium intake is a major cause of heart disease, hypertension and stroke. It is also a major contributor to obesity, especially in children and other vulnerable groups. You could improve your health and lower your risk of many degenerative health conditions as well as reducing excess weight by cutting down on salt and salty food. - Lose weight by eating less salt and salty food! - Go on! try it! - You will feel so much better!
Posted by
Willow
at
7:39 pm
Labels: child health, child obesity, eat less salt, Lose weight, Obesity, vulnerable to salt
Saturday, March 12, 2011
It is a truth universally acknowledged that the voluntary pledges of industry
It is a truth universally acknowledged that the voluntary pledges of industry, big business and multinationals, are unlikely to improve Public Health by the tiniest fraction of the smallest scrap of the littlest bit of an iota, and are negotiated by Governments, Health Ministers and Departments of Health, as the cynical tribute hypocrisy pays to virtue. Who but shysters would appoint the Food and Drinks Industry as advisers to the Department of Health with the aim of tackling the growing health problem of child obesity?
Posted by
Willow
at
2:46 pm
Labels: big business, child health, child obesity, Department of Health, eat less salt, food industry, multinationals, Oxford University's department of public health
Wednesday, March 02, 2011
New Warning about children's unhealthily high salt intake
The Telegraph carries a new warning report about children's unhealthy eating, especially with regard to their high salt intake. "High levels of salt in fast food, ready-made pasta, cereals and other meal-time treats aimed at children mean many face a ticking health time bomb, say experts." High salt intake is more dangerous for children because of their smaller size and the comparative immaturity of their organs. Their salt intake should be much lower than that of adults, yet for many children their salt intake is higher than the recommended maximum daily salt intake for adults.
The report covers other undesirable aspects of children's diets too, including the high sugar intake and the low nutritional content of much of the food they eat. Children's high salt intake and generally poor nutrition can significantly contribute to chronic and degenerative diseases such as obesity, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer.
My main concern about children's health concerns their high salt intake and its connection to child obesity. You can read my thoughts about it here. And here is my page about salt/sodium in foods.
Posted by
Willow
at
12:09 am
Labels: child obesity, children's health, eat less salt and salty food, Salt Intake
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Did you know there is a European Childhood Obesity Group (ECOG)?
Did you know there is a European Childhood Obesity Group (ECOG)? - They appear to have had a 'congress' last month: - I wonder how many 'child obesity experts' attended, and how much that 'congress' cost? And whether it has contributed an iota of anything worthwhile toward preventing or reducing child obesity. - I doubt it.
Let's just pick on one guy: Richard Storey. I don't know him or any of the other people who attended the congress. I've just arbitrarily picked on him. - I see that he is Chief Strategy Officer, M&C Saatchi, London, and that his brief is Communicating the messages of obesity prevention to the public. - What d'you think? Think he's doing a good job? Are the messages getting through? - Is child obesity being reduced? Are obese children learning how to combat their very great problems of constantly being insulted and sneered at and bullied and being given the wrong information and advice, and the wrong sort of food? - Or are the messages about obesity prevention that Mr Storey is giving out the same damaging, ineffective pre-digested gobbets of misinformation that obese adults and children have been force-fed for decades now?
If he's plugging the low-fat, calorie-counting garbage that the self-serving Food Industry pushes, then the incidence and severity of obesity will continue to soar. If he's saying that exercise promotes weight loss then he's helping no-one to lose excess weight. If he himself is slim and fit and thinks that 'eating less and exercising more' reduces obesity then he's plain WRONG, and if he thinks that dieting is helpful and that weight loss drugs and weight loss surgery have a part to play in reducing child obesity then I would profoundly disagree with him.
But Mr Storey may not be treading the doom-laden path I have envisaged. He may be giving the correct advice after all. In which case I'm surprised that it's not been headlined in the press and trumpeted in the broadcast media. Too much salt and salty food is the principal, the most important, the overwhelming, cause of child obesity. Children need to have a low intake of salt/sodium in order to prevent damaging fluid retention/weight gain and also to avoid developing a taste for salty food. Too much sugar can also cause unhealthy weight gain, but salt is a major culprit that most people do not know about. An obese child who is fed food containing no added salt will lose weight rapidly, easily and safely. - No dieting, no hunger, no drugs, no exhausting strenuous exercise: it's a no-brainer.
I invite Richard Storey to read my child obesity page, my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection, and the other information on my website, and to read some of the stuff on my blog/s. I wish him success in his mission.
Posted by
Willow
at
12:05 am
Labels: child obesity, eat less salt and salty food, European Childhood Obesity Group, obese children, Obesity and the Salt connection, Richard Storey, weight loss
Monday, November 01, 2010
Zoe has some good ideas about reducing obesity
This Daily Mail article informs us that Zoe Harcombe has written a book which attributes the increasing incidence of obesity on a radical change in government dietary advice a few decades ago, and the promulgation of myths about what is healthy food and how to reduce obesity. I tend to agree with her and I believe that people who follow her advice are likely to be successful in losing some of their excess weight and in improving their health. I especially agree with her in her criticism of the involvement of the food and drink industry in public health advice.
The article does not, however, mention salt intake or salt sensitivity, or that people who are sensitive or vulnerable to salt gain weight because of salt intake, which for them results in fluid retention leading to obesity. Salt and salty food is indeed the main cause of child obesity. Protecting toddlers and small children from high salt intake protects them from many health problems in addition to protecting them from the main factor in children becoming obese.
The other very important omission from the article is the role of pharmaceutical drugs in causing obesity. Prescribed drugs are a major cause of obesity, since many, possibly most, prescription drugs cause fluid retention/obesity when they are taken for an extended period of time. Drugs that routinely tend to cause overweight/obesity include many steroids, HRT, most anti-depressants, anti-epileptics, anti-psychotics, etc. See steroids and HRT and amitriptyline and other anti-depressants.
See Sodium in Foods and my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection. You may also like to read my political page about salt, pharmaceuticals and medical misinformation leading to obesity and a host of avoidable ill-health and suffering.
Lose weight by eating less salt! - Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
Posted by
Willow
at
9:27 pm
Labels: anti-depressants, anti-psychotics, avoid salt and salty food, child obesity, Fluid Retention, HRT, Lose weight, Obesity, Prescribed Steroids, prescription drugs, Zoe Harcombe
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Child Obesity: Listen to Bringing Up Britain, Radio 4 tonight at 10.15
If you are interested in Child Obesity, its causes and possible remedial measures, I recommend this thoughtful discussion programme (45 minutes), led by Mariella Frostrup, one of my favourite broadcasters. See Bringing Up Britain. The broadcast is also available to be heard on BBC iPlayer for a few more days.
My own webpage about children and obesity is here. See also my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection.
Lose weight by eating less salt! - Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
Posted by
Willow
at
9:16 pm
Labels: BBC Radio 4, Bringing Up Britain, child obesity, Lose weight, Mariella Frostrup
Monday, July 12, 2010
Most bags of crisps are about twice as large as they used to be, despite manufacturers pledging to reduce their size.
See the Telegraph article. You certainly can't accuse snack food manufacturers of falling over themselves to make their products less unhealthy, especially the salty snack brigade. But they do provide us with a free laugh or two, e.g. "PepsiCo, who make Walkers and Doritos crisps, announced a major commitment to healthy living in March, saying they would scrap the 40g and 50g ‘grab bag’ of crisps by 2015." - Only 5 years to wait...(o: - How many children's lives have they damaged with their salt-laden junk? And how many more will suffer in order to swell PepsiCo's profits?
Andrew Lansley, the UK Secretary of State against Health and for Food Inc, favours a “non-regulatory approach” to tackle obesity. Personally, I favour a change of job for Andrew Lansley.
Children need to be protected from salt and salty food. See Children and Salt.
Posted by
Willow
at
3:42 pm
Labels: Andrew Lansley, child health, child obesity, crisps, salty snacks
Thursday, July 08, 2010
Research finds yet again that obesity is not caused by inactivity.
Read about it in this BBC News item. But you can be sure that the fact that obesity is not caused by inactivity will not stop people, including many 'obesity experts', from continuing to urge overweight/obese people to take more exercise in order to lose weight, or to combine exercise with dieting. They are not interested in evidence or in facts. They have been conditioned to believe, despite lack of supporting evidence, that obesity is caused by a surfeit of calories. They believe that the marvellously complex human body and the multitude of many-faceted problems caused by obesity, can be explained by a bit of arithmetic about calories in and calories out. - Beware these simpletons! They are never sated. - If you don't do as they say (i.e. eat less and move more), you are lazy and greedy. If you do do as they say and it doesn't work (because it doesn't work!) then they will tell you you are a liar, or you did it wrong. They are themselves too lazy to read the research evidence.
Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection
How to lose excess weight safely and easily without bothering about calories at all.
Child Obesity.
Posted by
Willow
at
9:31 pm
Labels: Calorie Myth, child obesity, Fluid Retention, Lose weight easily, Obesity
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Panorama: Spoilt Rotten - horrifying child health problems of obesity, bad teeth, drunkenness...
I was truly shocked at what I saw in this programme. You can watch the main points here or watch the whole programme on the i-Player: Spoilt Rotten
Poor little children having to have a general anaesthetic to have a lot of rotted teeth out! Poor little souls. Surely their mothers should/must have known that giving them lots of sweets and sugary stuff repeatedly would rot their teeth? That giving a sugary drink in a bottle to go to bed with is especially damaging? That children need to brush their teeth and go to bed with a clean mouth? - Couldn't/Didn't the mothers notice that their children's teeth were rotting? - Some of the teeth were eroded almost to the level of the gums!
Don't Health Visitors stress this sort of information to mothers? Dental decay like this should not be happening. As the programme stressed, this is an avoidable health problem. It's a great shame.
With regard to the obese children featured in the programme, the one most featured was Leon, a five year old lad who weighs over 10 stone! - Yet I heard not one mention of salt! - Not one! - The doctor advising Leon's mother stressed the need for the lad to exercise more, but it has been proved time and time again that exercise does not reduce or prevent child obesity. Exercise is a good thing but it does not reduce weight. How is it that doctors dealing with problems of child obesity are giving such unhelpful advice? When children become fat it is essentially because they are eating salty food. Parents should be told this.
Children are especially vulnerable to salt because of their small size and small blood volume, and because their blood vessels are weaker than those of adults. Salt, and the water it attracts to it, can more easily distend weak blood vessels than fully mature ones. The resulting increase in blood volume and other fluid retention results in weight gain, as well as higher blood pressure and many other undesirable consequences. The smaller the child, the less salt they should have - and a baby, of course, should have no salt at all. - Babies can die if they are fed salty food.
And see Sodium in foods
The programme reported shocking instances of children taken to A and E because they were drunk! And we saw a 13 year old boy who regularly drinks excessive quantities of vodka! Maybe it is time, in the interests of child health, to set limits on the ease with which alcoholic drinks can be bought, and to raise the price of them.Other children who had been treated for glue ear were suffering unnecessarily because of their parents smoking. Apparently the smoke interferes with the working of the grommets that had been inserted into their ears to assist their hearing. One father gave up smoking and that would have benefited both his own and his son's health. Another father claimed not to believe that his smoking was damaging his child and he continued to smoke. His cigarettes were more important to him than his child's health.
Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection
FAT RETENTIONThis article is by Margaret Wilde
Posted by
Willow
at
10:55 am
Labels: BBC Panorama, blood vessels, blood volume, child health, child obesity, Fat children, tooth decay, weight gain
Thursday, March 18, 2010
More children are suffering from EXTREME obesity
See Los Angeles Times blog report.
This tragic state of affairs obtains because members of the public continue to receive the wrong information and advice about obesity, and in particular, about child obesity.
When children become fat it is essentially because they are eating salty food. Children are especially vulnerable to salt because of their small size and small blood volume, and because their blood vessels are weaker than those of adults. Salt, and the water it attracts to it, can more easily distend weak blood vessels than fully mature ones. The resulting increase in blood volume and other fluid retention results in weight gain, as well as higher blood pressure and many other undesirable consequences. The smaller the child, the less salt they should have - and a baby, of course, should have no salt at all. - Babies can die if they are fed salty food.
Because children have much smaller bodies than adults it would be best if they had no more than half as much salt as adults. Most children, however, have much more than this because they eat so many snacks and instant foods. Just one cheeseburger, for instance, contains almost double the recommended daily salt maximum for children. There are high amounts of salt in packet soups, instant noodles, ketchup and sauces, sausages, burgers and savoury snacks. Fat children will lose weight fast if they eat less salt. And even faster still if they eat plenty of fresh fruit and unsalted vegetables, because these are rich in potassium, which helps to displace sodium from the body. Overweight children should not be put on a diet; dieting is harmful and unnecessary and does not usually result in weight loss. Once children start dieting it is often the beginning of a lifetime of yo-yo dieting and increasing weight and ill-health.
Unfortunately bread contains a lot of salt and most families eat quite a lot of bread because of using it for sandwiches in packed lunches, and for toast, etc. Because of its high salt content bread is not a healthy food for little children or for anyone who is overweight. Some bread manufacturers have lowered the salt content of certain loaves, but most bread still usually contains 0.5g or more of sodium per 100g. This is too much. - Always check on the packet; look for the lowest sodium content.
Cheese is often recommended as being good for children because it contains calcium, but cheese is not really good for children because it has a high salt content. So don't give them a lot of it. Children can get plenty of calcium by drinking milk and by eating yogurt (but avoid the sort of yogurt that has lots of chemical additives).
And see Sodium in foods
Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection
Posted by
Willow
at
10:20 pm
Labels: avoid salt and salty food, blood volume, bread, cheese, child obesity, distended blood vessels, Fat children, Fluid Retention, misinformation, Salt Intake, weak blood vessels
Monday, March 01, 2010
Three-year-olds show signs of heart disease
BBC News reports on a US study that found obese children as young as three years old show signs of future heart disease.
It is ever more important that the truth be told about how child obesity comes about, namely that it is caused not by over-feeding children, but by giving them food too high in salt/sodium.
See Child Obesity
And see Sodium in foods
Posted by
Willow
at
2:25 pm
Labels: child health, child obesity, cut down on salt and salty food, heart disease
Monday, February 15, 2010
UK Teenage Boys Fitted With Gastric Bands
BBC News reports that two 14-year-old boys have had gastric bands fitted at Sheffield Children's Hospital. This appals me. In the report it says:
"Tam Fry, of the National Obesity Forum, said such operations were an example of society's failure to understand the problem of obesity in the UK. "It is a horrendous indictment on society that we should ever allow these children to get this fat," Mr Fry said."
There is a ghastly irony to Tam Fry's statement. Child obesity is the result of misinformation about the causes of obesity and the best ways to remedy it, and that calamitous misinformation tends to be given by organisations like the National Obesity Forum itself - see its NOF's Healthy Eating Tips and Cancer Research UK's Ten Top Weight Loss Tips. Of course the information on these pages may be changed in the future, but as I write this on Feb 15th 2010, the word 'SALT' does not even appear on either of these pages!! - And yet it is Salt Sensitivity/swollen veins/sodium retention/fluid retention/ that is overwhelmingly the cause of obesity, and reduction of salt intake that is the quickest, safest and most effective way to reduce/prevent obesity. Almost all child obesity is caused by high salt intake.I see that Cancer Research UK claims that its weight loss tips are based on scientific evidence! - I take leave to doubt that. Perhaps they could favour us by giving the references for any scientific evidence showing that those tips work better that simply cutting down on salt and salty food? - Or that as many as half of them even work at all!
And Cancer Research UK's statement that "Simply put, obesity is the result of taking in more calories through your diet than you are burning through physical activity." is simply WRONG. It is not true.
High salt intake is the primary cause of child obesity. It is VITAL to protect babies and small children from salty food.
See Children and Obesity
Sodium in foods
Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection
Fat retention and fat excretion: the importance of getting enough calcium.
Posted by
Willow
at
11:08 pm
Labels: Cancer Research UK, child obesity, gastric bands, National Obesity Forum, Salt Intake, Tam Fry, weight loss
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Obesity tends to be set in before the age of two.
See BBC News report. This is a national and international scandal caused largely by the misinformation that has been promulgated for decades by the medical profession, the diet industry, health agencies, government officials et al, and continues to be promulgated.
These unfortunate children have a lifetime's ill-health and unhappiness ahead of them, in which they will be repeatedly insulted and urged to 'eat less and move more', except that the language used is likely to be coarser and more wounding than that. That obesity is on the increase is not because these child victims are greedy and/or lazy. When children become fat it is essentially because they are eating salty food.
Children are especially vulnerable to salt because of their small size and small blood volume, and because their blood vessels are weaker than those of adults. Salt, and the water it attracts to it, can more easily distend weak blood vessels than fully mature ones. The resulting increase in blood volume and other fluid retention results in weight gain, as well as higher blood pressure and many other undesirable consequences. The smaller the child, the less salt they should have - and a baby, of course, should have no salt at all. - Babies can die if they are fed salty food.
High salt intake is the primary cause of child obesity. It is VITAL to protect babies and small children from salty food.
See Children and Obesity
Sodium in foods
Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection
Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, osteomalacia, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, boost your lung function and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.
Fat retention and fat excretion: the importance of getting enough calcium.
Posted by
Willow
at
11:25 pm
Labels: avoid salt and salty food, child health, child obesity, Fluid Retention, Salt Intake
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Kellogg's to reduce high salt content of Rice Krispies, Corn Flakes and other breakfast cereals
Kellogg's is to reduce the high salt content of Rice Krispies and Corn Flakes, Coco Pops and Ricicles, Frosties and Crunchy Nut, from March, as reported here. Well this is very good news. It will save a lot of suffering. The salt content of these junk cereals will still be high though, even after the reduction. "The move follows repeated warnings from the FSA that the nation is eating too much salt, calculating the average daily salt consumption is 8.6g, which is 43% above the recommended limit of 6g. The figure is linked to 14,200 premature deaths a year from conditions linked to high blood pressure, including strokes and heart attacks."
These cereals are especially unsuitable for toddlers and small children because children are more vulnerable to salt than adults are. High salt intake is a primary cause of child obesity.
See Children and Obesity
Sodium in foods
Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection
Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, osteomalacia, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, boost your lung function and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.
Fat retention and fat excretion: the importance of getting enough calcium.
Posted by
Willow
at
12:22 pm
Labels: breakfast cereals, child obesity, cornflakes, heart attack, high blood pressure, Kellogg's, Lose weight, salt content, stroke

