Global Sodium Reduction Strategies

In this first module we provide a course overview. We will explain the significant role that sodium plays in the development of high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease in people all over the world. Sodium intake needs to be lowered in every country to benefit the health and economic well-being of all populations. But how do we do it? What has worked before? We will discuss these topics throughout the course. First, let’s take a look at cardiovascular disease around the globe. Then we’ll look at what sodium does in the human body, what happens over time when we eat too much sodium for our bodies’ needs—and what can happen when we lower the amount of sodium we eat.

It is important to understand the setting before we take a look at the different sodium reduction intervention options that could work there. Every country will require more than one approach, but combining interventions will be most effective when sources of sodium are understood. Before you select the best interventions for your country, you need to understand how people consume the majority of their sodium.

This module will walk you through the basics of front-of-package labels (FoPL), such as what the intervention is supposed to do, and who it is supposed to reach. It turns out that even children take part in food purchasing when labels are accessible to all and easy to understand!

A strategy to use FoPL will require a setting where packaged foods are common. But as we’ll explore later in the module, this is now practically everywhere around the globe. FoPL are more easily interpreted when they convey a recommendation rather than simply stating levels of nutrients. In some regions, the existing legal structure is already sufficient to begin drafting and implementing regulations. In other regions, laws must be passed first. We will share lessons learned from real people who have worked on instituting FoPL in different countries. You will learn how these previous efforts formed our current understanding of best practices, and the importance of focusing on consumer understanding rather than industry-led goals when it comes to label design. We will provide basic guidelines for implementation. We will end with a real-world example from Chile, where challenges were addressed and FoP warning labels were successfully implemented.

In Module 5, we will describe the rationale for using low-sodium salts as a potential strategy to reduce dietary sodium intake at the population level. You will learn what low-sodium salts are, their health benefits, and the potential risks associated with their use. We will discuss what to consider before promoting the use of low-sodium salts at the population level. Low-sodium salts are available for sale in a wide range of real-world settings, but their implementation on a large scale has not yet been reported. We will conclude by describing how low-sodium salts were used as a public health strategy to lower sodium intake in two different populations.