Eating food high in sodium can increase calcium loss and lead to higher risk of osteoporosis, the Taiwanese Osteoporosis Association said.
The association said an overseas survey conducted among Asian men showed that those who often eat food high in sodium are 1.57 times more likely to develop osteoporosis than men who eat food with normal or low levels of sodium.
National Taiwan University Hospital’s Chan Ding-cheng (詹鼎正) told a news conference in Taipei on Sunday that “the body needs to keep a proper balance of cations and anions, so if a person consumes a large amount of sodium, they have to discharge some calcium to prevent excessive cations in the body.”
Chan, who is superintendent of the hospital’s Chu-Tung Branch in Hsinchu, said that a UK study suggested that high sodium intake results in increased loss of calcium through urine and that with every 100mg of sodium intake, the body loses about 1.4mg of calcium.
While many people like to eat hot pot in the winter, processed ingredients in the meals are usually high in sodium, Chan said.
A 200g bowl of hot pot can contain up to 7g of sodium, leading to losses of about 100mg of calcium — approximately 10 percent of the recommended daily calcium intake, he said, adding that noodles are also usually high in sodium.
Chan said people can prevent calcium loss by eating “natural” food more often, avoid eating soup from hot pot or with noodles, reducing the use of sauces and exercising regularly.
Association chairman Wu Chih-hsing (吳至行), a physician at National Cheng Kung University Hospital, said about one-third of women and one-quarter of men in Taiwan have osteoporosis.
“Up to 20 percent of patients die within a year of a fracture caused by osteoporosis, which is about equivalent to the mortality rates of end-stage breast cancer or stroke,” Wu said.
Wu said in addition to eating food with less sodium, people can prevent osteoporosis by doing core exercises to strengthen their muscles to protect their bones.
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