In 2020, the World Health Organization noted that one in three people in Burkina Faso lived with high blood pressure, also called hypertension. According to popular perception, patients with this disease should avoid consuming salt at all costs, as this may worsen the disease. During an exchange session between journalists and members of the Technical Secretariat responsible for multisectorality for nutrition (ST-Nut), nutritionist Dr Marcel Bengali briefly returned to the issue and gave some advice.
“The average citizen can find out about the diet to take in the event of hypertension by consulting sites dedicated to dietetics, with what is called the DASH diet (Dietary approaches to stop hypertension). It already gives you basic elements. But in summary, when you suffer from hypertension, you must control your food consumption, especially foods rich in salt. This means that you must review the addition of salt to the foods you prepare and do so. Beware of hidden salt. There are many industrial products that we have, but unfortunately we do not take the care to read the labels. Sometimes we cannot even do so. In industry, we often give the sodium level. In this case, we have to be careful because the sodium level is not equal to the salt level. We have to multiply it by two to get the salt level. So we really have to be careful with the foods we buy. who are already pre-prepared, and pay attention to their level of physical activity. We don’t say being a very, very active athlete, but the deck chair will only help to exacerbate the situation. In short, you need to adjust your salt intake. Do not follow a low-salt diet, completely devoid of salt, otherwise you will create other problems, but a low-salt diet, that is to say, with very little salt; engage in physical activity and promote the consumption of fruits and vegetables.”
Comments collected by Erwan Compaoré
Lefaso.net
