Cutting levels of salt and saturated fat in common foods could prevent thousands of deaths from heart attacks and strokes each year, the health watchdog has said.
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) called for much greater action from manufacturers to reduce unhealthy additives in food. Small dietary changes, such as reducing salt and saturated fats, could save more than 20,000 lives a year from the “largely avoidable” death toll of cardiovascular disease, experts said.
Graded taxation for unhealthy foods or subsidies for healthier products could also make healthy choices more affordable for consumers, while the nutritional content of meals served in the NHS, schools and other public settings could also be improved.
Trans fats, which are classified as toxic by the World Health Organisation because of the risk of clogged arteries, should be eliminated from food altogether, NICE’s guideline group said.
It added that ministers should consider legislation on salt and fat content if manufacturers did not voluntarily reduce levels in food.
Advertisement
Further recommendations include tighter regulation of the way unhealthy food is marketed to children.
NICE’s review of medical evidence found that reducing saturated fats and removing trans fats from the diet could save as many as 20,000 lives a year.
Meanwhile, reducing daily salt intake by 3g to an average for adults of 6g per day by 2015 would result in 15,000-20,000 fewer deaths from heart disease and strokes.
The Food Standards Agency and manufacturers previously agreed to cut salt content to reach a 6g per day target this year, but NICE’s experts said that progress had not been quick enough. As most people need to consume just 1g of salt per day, manufacturers and policymakers should aim to make further reductions to lower average intakes to 3g a day by 2025, it said.
The Government said that it would consider all the recommendations, but added that some of the proposals were “not practical”.
Advertisement
These included a recommendation to implement the “traffic lights” system of food labelling, highlighting the unhealthy content of products. This is already used by some British supermarkets but was vetoed last week for mandatory use across Europe by the European Parliament.
Heart disease and strokes cause 40,000 preventable deaths a year, while almost 6 million people in Britain are living with or disabled by cardiovascular disease or stroke, NICE said.
Professor Simon Capewell, vice-chair of the guidance group and public health physician, said there had been “encouraging progress” in reducing the levels of salt and saturated fat in food but insisted the rate of change should be “speeded up urgently”.
“The benefits of doing this will be seen remarkably quickly, within two to three years, along with corresponding savings to the NHS,” he said.
Most consumers did not notice a difference in taste if salt levels were reduced by 5 to 10 per cent a year in common foods such as bread or chips, because their tastebuds adjusted to the change, he added.
Advertisement
Professor Mike Kelly, NICE’s public health director, said that all the proposals aimed to reduce a “terrible toll of ill-health”.
“This isn’t about telling individuals to choose salad instead of chips — it’s about making sure that the chips we all enjoy occasionally are as healthy as possible,” he said.
The British Heart Foundation and other campaigners welcomed the NICE guidance yesterday.
But representatives of the food industry accused NICE of being “out of touch” with efforts to improve the nutritional content of food. Julian Hunt, of the Food and Drink Federation, claimed that manufacturers and restaurants were “leading the world” in voluntary changes.
“We are surprised that NICE has found the time and the money to develop guidance that seems to be out of touch with the reality of what has been happening for many years,” he said.