Salt Linked to 2.3 Million Deaths Worldwide

About 2.3 million heart-related deaths worldwide in 2010 were linked to eating too much salt, a new study finds.

Data collected by the American Heart Association suggests 15 percent of all deaths from heart attacks, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases were caused by consuming excessive quantities. In addition, most of those deaths occurred in lower-income countries.

"National and global public-health measures, such as comprehensive sodium reduction programs, could potentially save millions of lives," said one of the study's leaders, Dariush Mozaffarian, an associate professor of medicine and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health.

The American Heart Association suggests ingesting no more than 1,500 milligrams of sodium a day.

It's estimated 75 percent of the world's population eats at least twice the daily recommended amount of salt, according to a separate study of 187 countries.

The research found the United States, where the average intake of salt was about 3,600 milligrams a day,  is ranked 19th of the 30 largest countries studied for deaths due to excess salt.

Researchers analyzed 247 surveys on sodium consumption by adults from 1990 to 2010 and deduced how salt consumption was affect the risk of cardiovascular disease .

About 1 million of those whose deaths were studied were 69 years old or younger, according to the research. Also, men represented 60 percent of the deaths were women accounted for 40 percent

Eighty-four percent of the deaths were in low- and middle-income countries, the highest rates being in Ukraine, Russia and Egypt and the lowest in Qatar, Kenya and United Arab Emirates.

Global sodium intake from various sources such as prepared food and soy sauce averaged nearly 4,000 milligrams a day in 2010, according to the study's lead author Saman Fahimi, a visiting scientist at the Harvard School of Public Health.

In the U.S., nearly 75 percent of commercial pre-packaged meals and savory snacks for toddlers are high in sodium, according to additional research. A product is judged to be high in sodium if it has more than 210 milligrams of salt per serving.