People have a long history of salt consumption. Mark Kurlansky, an American journalist and writer of general interest non-fiction, notes, “Salt is present in almost every part of the human body and the …show more content…
In China, people were almost consuming twice the standard amount. China CDC survey shows that from 2000 to 2009, Chinese residents’ consumption decreased from 11.8 grams of salt per day to 9.2 gram of salt per day, a decrease of about twenty-two percent. In National Health and Family Planning Commission of the People’s Republic of China, Chinese dietary guidelines 2016, shows, “Chinese people’s actual sodium intake from 2000’s 6.4 grams per day (about sixteen grams of salt) went down to 2009’s 5.6 grams per day (about fourteen grams of salt)” (“Chinese”). There are many pieces of evidence showing how consuming too much salt elevates blood pressure. In National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention Health Promotion studies, “more than 800,000 people die each year from heart disease, stroke, and other vascular diseases, costing the nation $273 billion health care dollars in 2010” (“Where’s”). This is the biggest problem for people who consume too much salt. Through human average life expectancy increase, people need to focus more on chronic diseases because chronic diseases will reduce quality of life. “With high blood pressure, the average daily salt intake increased by one gram. This means that the systolic pressure increases by two mmHg and the diastolic pressure increases by one point seven mmHg” (“Life” 1). Most of the sodium people eat comes from processed foods and foods prepared in restaurants. Sodium is already part of processed foods and cannot be