When are we consuming all this sodium?

Background – Reducing dietary sodium (Na) intake is a recommended strategy for reducing chronic disease risk. However sodium intakes in the Australian population remain high. Understanding food related behaviours associated with sodium intake is an important step to help target appropriate dietary advice. Specifically, an estimate of the contribution of different meals and snacks to total dietary sodium is required. Objective –To determine amount of sodium provided at different meals and snacks, in free living Australian adults. Design – Two hundred and ninety nine adults (158 women,141 men), who participated in dietary studies, provided 24 hr dietary recalls (analysed using FoodWorks, Version 4) on their usual diet. All foods eaten were classified into 6 meal or snack times: breakfast (BF); morning tea (MT); lunch (L); afternoon tea (AT); dinner (D) and supper (S). Each individual’s proportion of Na per meal or snack was calculated and the group average determined. Outcomes – The mean (SD) age of the participants was 54.6 (9.5) yrs and the mean (SD) BMI was 29.4 (3.9) kg/m2. Thirty-six percent (n=107) of participants were taking antihypertensive medication. The mean (SD) total daily sodium intake from food was 2725.0 (1176.2) mg. Sodium contribution per meal or snack BF MT L AT D S % mg % mg % mg % mg % mg % mg All 16.9 435.9 3.1 88.7 33.9 915.3 5.0 134.0 38.4 1084.4 2.8 66.6 F 16.5 345.4 2.9 65.0 33.8 763.9 5.4 123.1 38.2 887.2 3.1 66.4 M 17.2 537.3 3.3 115.3 34.1 1084.9 4.6 146.3 38.5 1305.5 2.4 66.8 Conclusion – Although breads and cereals and snack foods have been reported as the main contributors to sodium intake, these data suggest that food choices associated with dinner and lunch contributed the most sodium to the adult diet. Snack foods only contributed 10% of the total daily sodium in this population. Investigating the specific foods consumed at these meals times will enable more targeted public health intervention strategies.