ABC | Volume 114, Nº3, March 2020

Short Editorial Lima Dietary Salt Reduction: Illusion or Reality? Arq Bras Cardiol. 2020; 114(3):562-563 approximately 30%, decreasing systolic blood pressure by 1.6 mmHg, with a potential 4.8% reduction in the incidence of acute myocardial infarction. 8 Education that promotes healthy measures is important. Unfortunately, there is still a lack of association between what is good for our health and what is most accepted by society, especially when we observe young people’s behavior at parties or on weekends, when they further face the difficulty of ingesting lower amounts of alcoholic beverages or giving preference to healthier foods without suffering discrimination. An Italian study found that both knowledge regarding salt ingestion (foods with more salt, the habit of reading labels, etc.) and behavior based on this knowledge were primarily lower in adolescents and individuals with lower levels of schooling. 9 Education for lower salt consumption will have to be widely supported by government agencies, industries, schools, healthcare professionals, and the advertising industry, in order to create a culture different from the current one. This process will have to start in early childhood, but the whole family will need to be integrated, and elderly people may be important agents of habit change within their communities. Evaluating strategies for salt reduction in different countries in all world regions, one study identified that the regions with the fewest initiatives were Africa, South East Asia, and the Eastern Mediterranean. 10 Only the implementation of diverse strategies for reducing salt conception, in a concomitant and organized manner, as well as the monitoring of their effects, will be able to have a real impact on the reduction of cardiovascular diseases. Dietary salt reduction will therefore be possible when it truly becomes the objective of national and regional health and education policies. As long as this reality, however, appears to be far off, even though efforts are growing, what remains is the impression of an illusion. 1. Scala LC, Magalhães LB, Machado A. Epidemiologia da hipertensão arterial sistêmica. In: Moreira SM, Paola AV; Sociedade Brasileira de Cardiologia. Livro Texto da Sociedade Brasileira de Cardiologia. 2ª ed. São Paulo: Manole; 2015. p. 780-5. 2. Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases 2013–2020. [Cited in 2020 Feb 26]. Available online: https://www. who.int/nmh/events/ncd_action_plan/en/ 3. De Keyzer W, Tilleman K, Ampe J, De Henauw S, Huybrechts I. Effect of sodium restriction on blood pressure of unstable or uncontrolled hypertensive patients in primary care. Nutr Res Pract. 2015;9(2):180-5. 4. MalachiasMVB,SouzaWKSB,PlavnikFL,RodriguesCIS,BrandãoAA,Neves MFT, et al., Sociedade Brasileira de Cardiologia. VII Diretriz Brasileira de Hipertensão. Arq Bras Cardiol. 2016; 107(3Supl 3):1-83. 5. Villela PTM, de Oliveira EB, Villela PTM, Bonardi JMT, Bertani RF, Moriguti JC, et al. Salt Preference is Linked to Hypertension and not to Aging. Arq Bras Cardiol. 2019;113(3):392-9. 6. Cashman KD, Kenny S, Kerry JP, Leenhardt F, Arendt EK. ‘Low-Salt’ Bread as an Important Component of a Pragmatic Reduced-Salt Diet for Lowering Blood Pressure in Adults with Elevated Blood Pressure. Nutrients. 2019;11(8):1725. 7. Arantes AC, Sousa ALL, Vitorino PVO, Jardim PCBV, Jardim TSV, Rezende JM, et al. Effects of added salt reduction on central and peripheral blood pressure. Arq Bras Cardiol. 2020; 114(3):554-561 8. Hendriksen MAH, Hoogenveen RT, Hoekstra J, Geleijnse JM, Boshuizen HC, van Raaij JMA. Potential effect of salt reduction in processed foods on health. Am J Clin Nutr. 2014;99(3):446-53. 9. Cairella G, Sabino P, Scalfi L, Fabbri A, Galletti F, Garbagnati F, et al on behalf of the SINU-GIRCSIWorking Group. Salt andHealth: Survey on Knowledge and Salt Intake Related Behaviour in Italy. Nutrients. 2020;12:279. 10. Trieu K, Neal B, Hawkes C, Dunford E, Campbell N, Rodriguez-Fernandez R, et al. Salt Reduction Initiatives around theWorld. A Systematic Review of Progress towards the Global Target. PLoS One. 2015; e0130247. References This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 563