Tonight we are learning just how early in life the problem of high blood pressure can develop. 67 million American adults have it and we learn more today about how the problem is starting with our kids, taking in weight too much salt and results are predictably bad. Our report tonight from our chief science correspondent Robert Bazell.
“Food is prepared, and then wash your hands.”
Petercom insists on the healthy diet for her kids because of her family's history of heart disease and stroke. The effort includes limiting salt.
“Whole foods，you know, have very little sodium. Fresh foods, and vegetables, you know, lean meats, things like that and stay away from the processed foods. ”
But too few families are making this effort. The Centers for Disease Control surveyed more than 6200 kids aged 8 to 18. Though the recommended daily sodium intake for the children and adults is 2300 mg a day, kids are getting an average of more than 3300.
For the first time it’s been demonstrated that kids in the US are consuming more salt than anyone ever thought they did. And that high salt intake is associated with high blood pressure even in children.
Blood pressure in kids went up from 1.3 to 2.4 times normal, depending on salt intake. In kids already overweight or obese, blood pressure went up as much as 5 times. If you don't exercise, you are overweight, you don't eat well, you consume pre-package foods, all of those things tend to go to together.
For-school lunch program has been working to cut salt. But snack foods and fast foods are big concerns. When serving a Pretzel (椒盐卷饼) or potato chips, a big Mac, a whopper with cheese. And KFC chicken breast, each has about half the 2300mg, daily sodium requirement.
Doctors worried that the taste for salt usually formed in childhood, and becomes a lifelong habit, making it especially important for children to consume as little of it as possible.
As for 12-year-old Batherine Kombi,"I have had unhealthy food but I don't like the taste of them".
Doctors wish far more kids shared her taste.
Robert Bazell, NBC news, New York
