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Episode details

Radio 4,4 mins

Salt danger: where it's hidden in food and drink

Radio 4 in Four

Available for over a year

The food we eat is the greatest cause of death and illness worldwide. The main culprits - salt, sugar and fat - are now so embedded in our diet, in the form of processed foods, that most of us consume far too much. As a nation we now eat thirty thousand tonnes less salt each year than we did fifteen years ago, saving the NHS a staggering £1.5 billion per year. Blood pressure lies at the heart of this huge saving and, as Professor Graham MacGregor explains to Jim al-Khalili, blood pressure is not a natural consequence of ageing. High blood pressure is simply a consequence of too much salt. First broadcast on The Life Scientific, 25 April 2017.

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