Kids know by a young age that salt has a way of ramping up the flavour of foods. By the time they are weaned off their bland baby food and introduced to the general Malaysian diet, they would already be consuming too much salt. It was found in a study that 79% of 1 to 3 year olds, 87% of 4 to 5 year olds and 90% of 6 to 18 year olds consume too much salt everyday.
But is it a wonder really when all of our daily staples are high in salt? Salt is also known as sodium. To name a few dishes high in sodium, there’s fried rice, fried mee, mee sup, nasi lemak, roti canai, instant noodles, curries and meat soups, salted fish, salted egg, omelette, fish cake, fish ball, ikan bilis, all our different types of kerepek and keropok including the much-loved keropok lekor and packaged snacks, processed food such as biscuits and bread, cheese, sausages and others, canned food, breakfast meats and cold cuts as well as fast food and their accompanying fries and side dishes. All these foods are laden with sodium.
Amongst them all, however, the 2017/18 Malaysian Community Salt (MyCoSS) Study found that it’s fried vegetables that contributed to the highest sodium intake! This was followed by bread and then omelette—the last two being children’s most popular foods.
How Come We Consume So Much Salt?
One of the reasons why there is so much salt in our diet is because of the way we cook our meals. We automatically use condiments, sauces, seasoning, flavouring and dips in all our dishes so that the end result would have that inimitable Malaysian “oomph”.
Unfortunately, we have our kicap masin, kicap manis, kicap lemak, seasoning sauce, oyster sauce, fish sauce, sambal belacan, stock cubes, chili sauce and tomato sauce that we liberally pour into our cooking. We would further add to our salt consumption by additionally dipping our already salty meal into that mandatory side dish of soy sauce and chili padi served with every meal! In fact, it is in our Malaysian food culture to have a variety of hot and savoury sauces prepared to accompany our every meal, or we wouldn’t be able to fully enjoy that meal as the “kick” of the cuisine would be missing.
That’s why we consume so much salt.
But Salt Is Not All Bad
Of course, salt is not the “bad” thing it may seem to be. Salt is needed in the body to perform a range of physiological functions. For instance, salt is required to balance fluids in the blood, maintain healthy blood pressure, transmit nerve impulses, and contract and relax muscle fibers. That’s why it cannot be eliminated altogether.
However, too much salt is bad for the body—both for children as well as for anyone else at any age. There is now evidence that a high salt intake in children influences their blood pressure too (salt doesn’t just affect old people) and predisposes them to high blood pressure leading to heart disease and stroke, osteoporosis, respiratory illnesses such as asthma, as well as stomach cancer and obesity as they grow into adulthood.
In the MyCoSS Study, it was reported that four out of five Malaysians consume sodium at far higher levels than what is recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Malaysians consume 7.9g or 1.6 teaspoons of salt everyday and that is well above the recommended amount of 5g or one teaspoon a day.
How To Know If Your Children Are Eating Too Much Salt
Of course, if we eat a high sodium diet, so will our children because they will eat what we put on the able. Here are some signs that your children may be consuming too much salt.
Stomach Discomfort
Too much salt may irritate your child’s digestive tract or stomach. It can lead to nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps or diarrhea.
Dark, Yellow urine
It is common for children and adults who eat too much sodium to produce dark, yellow urine with a strong smell. The darker colour shows that the urine has become concentrated with less water secreted.
High Blood Pressure
A high salt intake is known to increase blood pressure and children do get high blood pressure leading to a host of preventable diseases later in life. A study conducted in a government preschool in Kuching district from January to June 2017 showed that 9.7% of the children were pre hypertensive and at risk for hypertension. This study is consistent with an earlier one done among Primary School children in Selangor where 12.23% and 13.4% of the children were found to have pre-hypertension and hypertension respectively.
Weight Gain
Weight gain can be associated with increased salt intake. In Malaysia, data from the National Health and Morbidity Survey 2019 revealed that 29.8% of children aged between 5 and 17 had excess weight, with 14.8% classified as obese.
Seizures
According to the Merck Manuals Online Medical Library, children can develop seizures from having too much salt in the bloodstream.
Bloated Appearance
Persistently high sodium levels in the body can cause bloating, breathing difficulties, brain swelling, kidney damage and even heart failure.
Excessive Thirst
Salt helps to balance fluid inside the body’s cells. When too much is eaten, water is drawn out of the body’s cells, triggering thirst. If your child is usually thirsty for no apparent reason (such as exercise or being outside in the hot sun) it may be because he has eaten too much salty food.
Following Your Footsteps
You, as a parent may be eating too much salt in your diet yourself. Naturally, your child would follow suit and eat the food choices you buy for the house. If you reduce your own intake of salty foods, so will your child. After all, you lead and they follow!
How To Reduce Salt Intake in Children
- Give them healthy snacks of fruit and vegetables instead of junk food.
- Homemade meals are usually lower in salt than food bought from outside. Limit your fast food and hawker stall food consumption or eating out to have more control over the use of sodium and sauces.
- When cooking for children, do not add salt in the food.
- Use spices, herbs and vegetables for flavouring instead of sodium-laced seasonings and stock cubes.
- Reduce your own salt intake gradually and your taste buds will adjust accordingly. After a few weeks of cutting back, you won’t miss the taste of salt so much. Translate this practice into your homecooked meals for your family.
- Watch your child’s intake of salt through their favourite foods and snacks.
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