Staff Profile: Dr Kathy Trieu
Kathy Trieu is a Research Fellow with a background in public health nutrition at the George Institute for Global Health, where she leads policy-oriented research related to improving the nutrition of populations for the prevention of noncommunicable diseases. Kathy was recently awarded her PhD (January 2019) from the University of Sydney, Faculty of Medicine and […]
Potential use of salt substitutes to reduce blood pressure
Farrand et al published a commentary outlining the potential use of salt substitutes to complement existing salt reduction strategies. Salt substitutes offer an opportunity to further reduce population salt intake and also increase potassium intake, which will reduce population blood pressure and assist in preventing and managing hypertension. They recommend governments consider promoting and subsidising salt […]
Fact sheet and call to action on dietary sodium in Canada
Hypertension Canada released a ‘Fact sheet and call to action on dietary sodium’ in January, which received widespread support from Canadian health and scientific organizations. The fact sheet highlights the risk of high sodium intakes, the importance of population sodium reduction, and opportunities for sodium reduction in Canada. The call to action comprises 10 priority […]
Iodine fortification of foods and condiments, other than salt, for preventing iodine deficiency disorders (Review)
Santos et al recently published a Cochrane Review, investigating the addition of iodine to foods other than salt to prevent diseases caused by inadequate iodine intake. Eleven studies met the authors’ inclusion criteria, seven randomised control trials (RCTs), three cluster non-RCTs and one randomised cross-over study. The majority were carried out in school aged children […]
Costa Ricans consuming almost twice the recommended amount of salt
Costa Ricans consume almost double the WHO salt recommendations. The Costa Rican Institute for Research and Education in Nutrition and Health (Incenses) have coordinated two international events to raise awareness of the issue. In February, a workshop “Application of social marketing in the creation of capacities and the reduction of salt intake in Latin America: […]
Sodium and Potassium Dietary Reference Intake Values Updates- US
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recently reviewed evidence and updated dietary reference intake values for sodium and potassium. Adequate intake (AI) amounts have remained unchanged for 14-50 year olds, and increased slightly for adults over 51 years old. For most children’s age groups the AI has been reduced slightly. The tolerable upper […]
Mid-term evaluation of Malaysia’s National Salt Reduction Strategy
In November last year, with support from WHO, Kathy and Jacqui from the George Institute supported a Ministry of Health workshop in Malaysia to understand the progress of the national salt reduction strategy to date, with a view to providing recommendations for strengthening implementation and monitoring of the strategy in the next two years. The […]
Sodium Levels in Packaged Foods Sold in 14 Latin American and Caribbean Countries: A Food Label Analysis
In 14 Latin American and Caribbean countries, Arcand et al investigated the sodium content of 12 packaged food categories, and determined that 82% of foods were already meeting the regional target at baseline, and almost half were already meeting the lower target. More than 90% of products were already meeting the targets for uncooked pasta and […]
Dough mixing properties and white pita bread sensory characteristics as affected by salt reduction
A recent study by Georges C et al investigated the dough mixing properties and sensory characteristics of white pita bread using three different types of salt (NaCl, Ag-NaCl and NaCl-KCl). For acceptability, the “just-about-right” scale showed 0.9% normal salt (NaCl) was optimal in bread. This “saltiness” could be achieved by the alternative salts, resulting in a […]
Understanding Barriers and Enablers to State Action on Salt: Analysis of Stakeholder Perceptions of the VicHealth Salt Reduction Partnership
A study by McKenzie et al investigated stakeholder perceptions of the Victorian Salt Reduction Partnership. The Partnership consists of health and research organisations that came together in 2015 to develop an action plan for salt reduction interventions in Victoria, Australia. Fourteen stakeholders were interviewed (12 members of the partnership and two informal collaborators) at the mid-point […]