In February this year AWASH held their annual Salt Awareness Week , with the theme “Salt and Your Health”, with an aim to raise awareness that a high salt diet is extremely bad for your health.

Many organisations have been working to reduce the amount of salt hidden in foods and in a great first step the Sydney Morning Herald has reported this week that a number of  bread and cereal manufacturers have agreed to reduce the sodium content of their products in response to rising concern about Australians’ high salt intake.

As the article reported, that the parliamentary secretary for health, Mark Butler, has stated that George Weston Foods, Goodman Fielder Baking, Allied Mills and Cripps Nubake, as well as Woolworths, Coles and Aldi, have all agreed to reduce sodium in bread products to 400 milligrams per 100 grams by the end of 2013.

Other manufacturers including, Kelloggs, Sanitarium and Cereal Partners Worldwide, have also agreed to reduce sodium content by 15 per cent over four years.

This is a great integrated effort from everyone involved and will assist in the reduction of associated diseases like high blood pressure, but to osteoporosis, obesity, stomach cancer, kidney stones, and stroke.

If you want to educate yourself on how you can monitor how much salt and sugar you consume on a daily basis, you can start by understanding how to read nutrition labels on food products.

The Better Health Channel and Food Standards of Australia and New Zealand websites offer fantastic advice on how to read these labels properly.