Salt and Sugar: How Much is Enough?

Large amounts of sugar stimulate the growth of cancer cells. This has been proven by scientists at the Flemish Institute of Biotechnology. So how much sugar can you eat without harming your health? And salt?

Sugar - the sweet killer

According to the World Health Organization, daily sugar intake should not exceed 10% of daily energy (calories), or better yet - no more than 5%.

For convenience, we've recalculated these percentages into specific grams and teaspoons (see table). But this isn't just the sugar we add to drinks and food, it's also the sugar in the products we consume.

It's hard to judge the amount of sugar on a product label, but you can roughly estimate it. If sugar is listed near the top of the product label, it's probably a lot. If it's at the bottom, it's a little less. And remember that sugar includes table sugar, dextrose, glucose, fructose, and many others.

Is it possible to work without sugar? After all, it is needed to provide energy, helping the brain work better. However, it is not necessary to use refined sugar. Because sugar is found in fruits and berries, honey, as well as from the main food sources such as cereals, bread, potatoes and other foods containing starch.

Glucose is one of the main components that starch is converted into during digestion. And this amount of glucose is enough for the brain and the whole body.

Salt - white death

Calculations by American scientists have shown that reducing salt intake by about 3 grams per day, or half a teaspoon, could prevent more than 90,000 deaths in the US, and about 100,000 heart attacks.

Most deaths are linked to high blood pressure: salt contributes to high blood pressure, which in turn increases the risk of atherosclerosis, which causes heart attacks and strokes, as well as coronary heart disease and heart failure.

Salt also increases the risk of death in other ways. It has been shown that eating too much salt increases the risk of cancer by 15%. We are talking about tumors in the stomach, intestines and lungs.

There is a bacterium - Helicobacter pylori, which lives in the stomachs of many people, contributing to the development not only of stomach ulcers, but also of stomach cancer. Thanks to salt, this bacterium will be "active" and regenerate better. Therefore, people who eat a lot of salt create favorable conditions for the development of Helicobacter.

Another deadly disease that can be linked to salt is hip fractures. Such injuries often occur in elderly women. Because of immobility, many of them die quickly. Therefore, eating too much salt leads to calcium loss, causing osteoporosis (weakening of bone tissue) and thus increasing the risk of pathological fractures, of which hip tendon injuries are the most serious.

How can you find out how much salt can be added to food when cooking? In many countries, packaging provides detailed information about the salt content of a product. It will not be listed as salt, but as sodium, the ingredient in salt.

This is the most harmful ingredient in salt. Sodium retains water in the body, causing blood vessels to constrict, leading to high blood pressure. The amount of sodium that can be used daily is 2,400 mg - found in 6 grams of salt (equivalent to 1 teaspoon).

According to VNN