🗂️ Topic: Health / WHO Guidelines / Lifestyle & Nutrition

WHO Recommends Potassium-Based Salts to Tackle Hypertension and Heart Disease

Introduction

In its latest health advisory, the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends switching from traditional table salt to potassium-based salt substitutes (K-salts) to help lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of heart disease. This recommendation is especially relevant for countries like India, where hypertension is a growing public health challenge.

🧂 What Are K-Salts?

• K-salts are salt substitutes where sodium chloride is partially or fully replaced by potassium chloride.
• Benefits:
  • Reduces sodium intake
  • Increases potassium levels, which are beneficial for heart health
  • Helps in lowering blood pressure naturally

📏 WHO Guidelines on Sodium & Potassium Intake

• Sodium intake should be < 2 grams per day (≈ 5 grams of table salt)
• Recommends partial replacement of regular salt with K-salts
• Not recommended for:
  • Children
  • Pregnant or breastfeeding women
  • Individuals with kidney disorders
  • (Due to lack of comprehensive safety data for these groups)

🧪 Scientific Evidence Supporting K-Salt Use

• Based on 26 randomized controlled trials with ~35,000 participants
• Results:
  • Systolic BP reduction: ~4.76 mmHg
  • Diastolic BP reduction: ~2.43 mmHg
  • 10% decrease in non-fatal strokes
  • 23% reduction in cardiovascular deaths
• Note: WHO did not issue a strong recommendation, as high sodium intake persisted in many trial groups, making the effect hard to isolate

🇮🇳 Why This Matters for India

• Hypertension prevalence: ~35.5% of Indian adults
• Cardiovascular diseases are a leading cause of mortality
• Adopting dietary changes, including K-salts, may offer a low-cost intervention to reduce national disease burden

🧂 Challenges to Implementation

• Taste preference: Indian diets often favor high-sodium foods
• Food processing: Sodium is used for:
  • Preservation
  • Moisture retention
  • Flavor enhancement
• Food industry inertia: Reformulating products to include K-salts may face resistance
• Public awareness and label transparency are still limited

✅ Conclusion

WHO’s guidelines on K-salts offer a potential dietary tool to address the hypertension epidemic. However, the success of implementation in countries like India depends on consumer behavior, industry participation, and public health education.