Too much salt is not good for our health
We know too much salt is bad for our health, and we need to be more careful about what we're eating because research, carried out by Consensus Action on Salt and health (CASH), has found surprising levels of salt in biscuits sold in supermarkets.
A survey of 479 sweet biscuits from the major supermarket chains found having sweet biscuits with your afternoon cup of tea, or popping a couple in your child’s packed lunch, could be adding more salt to your diet than you think.
Parents might be aware that the high levels of sugar found in biscuits are putting their children at increased risk of developing dental caries, obesity and diabetes; but they might not realise that the hidden salt is causing just as much damage - putting them at risk of developing high blood pressure later in life.
Recent data from the UK’s National Diet and Nutrition Survey 2011 show that 60 per cent of 19-64 year olds regularly eat biscuits. And children are eating just as many - if not more – biscuits than adults, with 80 per cent of under-tens eating them on a regular basis (at an average of 1-2 biscuits a day). The maximum advised salt intake for children is also much lower than that of adults; a child aged 4-6 should have half that of an adult, 3g.
Examples of biscuits high in salt
- Asda Fun Size Mini Milk Chocolate Digestives, 0.4g per 25g bag
- Sainsbury’s Giant White Chocolate and Raspberry Cookies, 0.39g per 60g biscuit
- Asda Extra Special All Butter Belgian White Chocolate Cookies, 0.30g per 25g* biscuit
- McVitie’s Mini Gingerbread Men, 0.30g per 25g pack
- Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Ginger and oatflake cookies, 0.26g per 25g* biscuit
- Cadburys Milk Chocolate Digestives, 0.24g per 16g* biscuit
- McVitie’s Milk/Dark Chocolate Hobnobs, 0.20g per 19g* biscuit
*biscuit size calculated from nutritional information
Children can find as much, or more, salt in one 16g Cadburys Digestive biscuit (0.24g) as the following;
- A chicken nugget (Sainsbury’s Frozen Chicken Nuggets, 0.24g per 17g nugget)
- A fish finger (Birds Eye Cod Fish Fingers, 0.2g per 28g finger)
- Salted popcorn (Butterkist Salted Popcorn, 0.20g per 20g serving)
“Many people will be very surprised to hear that so much salt is added to sweet biscuits.” says CASH Nutritionist Sonia Pombo.
“This is in the form of either added salt (sodium chloride) or sodium bicarbonate. Both of these are largely unnecessary in biscuits. Even if bicarbonate is required, potassium bicarbonate or calcium bicarbonate can be used instead”.
The survey also revealed huge variations in the amount of salt between brands of the same biscuit type. Within digestive biscuits, some branded biscuits were shown to have more than DOUBLE the salt content of some supermarket own brand biscuits e.g. McVitie’s had 0.2g salt per digestive biscuit vs. Sainsbury’s So Organic with 0.09g per digestive biscuit.
Some varieties of biscuits had consistently lower levels of salt across all the brands, with some of the more traditional favourites such as custard creams and chocolate bourbons containing ‘trace’ levels of salt per portion (1 biscuit). However, this doesn’t hide from the fact that a large number of biscuits still contain unnecessary amounts of salt. CASH urge manufacturers to reduce the amount of salt in all their biscuits to the lowest levels possible.
Examples of biscuits low in salt
- Tesco Bourbon Cream Biscuits, trace per 14g biscuit (0.3g salt/100g product)
- Fox’s Fruit and Nut Chunkie, 0.08g per 26g* biscuit (0.3g salt/100g product)
- Waitrose Essential Nice Biscuits, trace per 8g* biscuit (0.3g salt/100g product)
- Jammie Dodgers, trace per 19g* biscuit (0.4g salt/100g product)
- Maryland Double Choc Cookies, trace per 11g* biscuit (0.4g salt/100g product)
*biscuit size calculated from nutritional information
“With salt hidden in sweet foods as well, how can parents be expected to prevent their children from eating too much salt, putting them at risk of high blood pressure as adults, one of the biggest cause of death in the UK?” saysProfessorGraham MacGregor, CASH Chairman and Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at Queen Mary, University of London. “Manufacturers of biscuits need to remove the large and unnecessary amounts of salt that they put into biscuits”.
Victoria Taylor, Senior Dietitian at the British Heart Foundation, says: “When even sweet treats are harbouring a salty secret, it’s clear families face a real battle to cut down on their salt intake. It’s made even more difficult by the fact we have grown accustomed to the taste of salt and so it’s practically impossible to know by sight or taste how salty something actually is. Food labels, ideally using traffic light colours, will help make that clearer to shoppers and then it’s up to us all to keep a lid on the amount of sugar and salt we’re eating – something our waistlines and hearts will thank us for.”
TIPS for making healthier choices:
- Make biscuits a treat and not an everyday occurrence. If you like to snack, opt for healthier alternatives e.g. fruit, nuts and plain popcorn
- When making your own biscuits, be sure to use unsalted butter, or even better, a mono or polyunsaturated fat e.g. corn oil or rapeseed oil
- Baking powder is used as a raising agent when baking, but is not always necessary for biscuits. Avoid where possible or use potassium bicarbonate
- Compare nutrition labels and choose the lower salt options
- If you can’t resist a sweet treat, choose smaller biscuits and ensure you eat fewer of them
- Opt for more traditional biscuits e.g. bourbon biscuits or custard creams which were consistently lower in salt per biscuit across brands
Tagged in Health Salt Nutrition Diet Healthy eating