Dietary salt intake in preschool-aged children

Dietary salt intake in preschool-aged children Abstract This work is devoted to the intake of table salt in preschool children. Although salt has an irreplaceable role in the human organism, the human population is currently struggling with its excess in diet, which can lead to complications in patiens with arterial hypertension or other chronic diseases. Since the habit to salty taste is learned, it is advisable to reduce salt intake from childhood. The aim of this work was to find out how much table salt is taken by children of preschool age and what foods are its main source. The research involved 3 kindergartens, whose main cooks wrote down the amount of salt used in cooking for 10 days, another source of information about salt in food was menus and stock picking lists from which it was possible to find out how much salt did children in kindergarten take. The second research subject was 10 children whose parents wrote down exact amount of food and salt added to meals for 1 week. Subsequently, the results were entered into graphs and evaluated.The research shows that children consume almost 3 times more salt at home than in the case of all-day meals in kindergarten. The main source of salt in the home environment and in kindergartens are bakery products, despote the reformulations are taking place, there..