With students starting to enjoy their long-awaited summer vacation — which many will spend largely at home — the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) yesterday urged young people to refrain from snacking on instant noodles and potato chips to avoid overconsumption of sodium.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare recommends an adult consume no more than 2,400mg of sodium, or 6g of salt, per day.
However, according to the Nutrition and Health Surveys in Taiwan conducted by the government between 1993 and 2011, the average daily sodium intakes of male junior-high and senior-high school students were 4,899mg and 4,962mg respectively.
The surveys also indicated that younger people tended to have higher levels of sodium consumption.
“A recent inspection we carried out on some of the popular snack foods and instant noodle products among youngsters has yielded worrying results,” the agency said.
“For instance, a cup of instant noodles contains about 3,120mg of sodium, which is 1.5 times the recommended daily amount, while a bag of potato chips or corn chips has approximately 800mg of sodium,” it said.
Overconsumption of sodium could increase the risk of high blood pressure, heart attacks or strokes, the agency said.
Citing its research from 2007 into the health of people with high blood pressure, high blood sugar and high blood lipid, the agency said about one in 12 people aged 20 to 39 in Taiwan has hypertension.
“The figure may climb further if the younger generation continues their salty dietary habits,” the agency said.
Chiang Po-hsin (江柏欣), a physician at Shin Kong Wu Ho-Su Memorial Hospital’s family medicine department, said people with heart disease or who have renal dysfunctions should keep a particularly close tab on their sodium intake, as over-ingestion of salt could aggravate their condition and lead to serious complications.
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