Yashoda Group of Hospitals, in association with Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), recently kick started a campaign called ‘fight the salt monster’ to educate the general public against excessive use of salt in the foods. High salt consumption has been associated with a number of health problems such as high blood pressure, osteoporosis, stomach cancer, obesity, kidney disease and kidney stones.

‘Fight the salt monster’ campaign is the first cohesive step by Yashoda Group of Hospitals and GHMC to create awareness on health problems associated with excessive consumption of salt. The campaign calls on everyone to be wary about the consumption of the salt in light of incontrovertible evidence that high intake of salt is harmful to health.

To highlight the ill-effects of excess salt intake on health, Yashoda hospitals has created a character called the ‘salt monster’, which depicts a 10 to 12 feet high salt laden scary monster to enlighten the community against high intake of salt. Various salt monsters will be erected in most high-traffic junctions, islands and centre medians across the city The idea is to make the general people understand that salt is a silent monster lurking everywhere and at everyone’s home.

Salt, also known as sodium chloride, has sodium in it which is harmful for health. Sodium is available naturally in foods such as diary, some vegetables, seafood, meat and eggs. Over the years, the changing lifestyle of Indians, in both urban and rural areas, have resulted in the increased consumption of packaged, processed and ready-to-eat foods that contain high sodium content.

Every day, the average Indian consumes about 30 grams of salt. That is very higher compared to the recommended six grams for healthy people by National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), a research organisation under the aegis of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). High salt intake leads to high blood pressure over time. High blood pressure is a leading cause of heart attack and stroke – two key reasons for death and illness in India.

Elucidating on the urgent need to reduce salt content in foods, Dr G S Rao, managing director, Yashoda Group of Hospitals, said, “We have seen growing incidences of heart and kidney diseases in the past few years. We found that salt, or rather the sodium in salt is the main culprit. Salt monster campaign is an initiative to educate the community about the danger of high salt diets as majority of the salt in diet is hidden in the processed foods and is usually consumed without people knowing it. And, targeting prepared foods is one way to do this. The government should also take a leadership role in getting the food industry to reduce the amount of salt added to processed foods.”

Excessive salt intake is also a risk factor for heart disease, kidney diseases, and stomach cancer and is also a contributor to osteoporosis. Salt reduction should be part of every household and all heath authorities should take up this cause. This will significantly reduce spending on health budgets as well.