The Biggest Problem with Chinese-Style Diets: Too Salty

Recently The Lancet published the leading cause of death in China—stroke—and pointed out that this is strongly linked to the Chinese dietary pattern: Chinese people eat far too much salt.

I have always eaten lightly. These past few days I have been on vacation with my family and could only eat at various restaurants. The salty, spicy food outside nearly left me gasping.

A person should consume no more than 6 grams of salt a day, but Chinese people generally exceed this; most Chinese consume more than 10 grams of salt daily, and people in the North are especially heavy users.

Eating too much salt not only causes hypertension and stroke; many cancers are also linked to a high-salt diet. The various salt-preserved foods that Chinese people love so much contain high levels of the strong carcinogen nitrites. High-salt foods are everywhere in our diet, and street snacks and Chinese packaged snacks are even higher in salt.

Not long ago I took on a young colorectal cancer patient just over twenty, whose long-standing dietary habit was eating spicy strips and other snacks and ordering takeout for years on end, so that he developed colorectal cancer while still in the prime of life.

Heavily flavored food tastes delicious, but it leaves great aftereffects. According to the National Health Commission, China's current life expectancy is 77 years, but healthy life expectancy is only 68.7 years, meaning more than 8 years must be spent living with illness. Digestive-tract cancers and the aftereffects of stroke, closely linked to high-salt diets, are among the common diseases of middle and old age. China not only has a high incidence of stroke; it also has the world's highest incidence of gastric and esophageal cancer.

I have always counted preserved foods among the dietary restrictions for cancer patients: first, because preserved foods are carcinogenic, and second, because they can trigger stroke. Many cancer patients also have a stroke at the same time as their cancer, which ultimately results in a very poor quality of life.

A low-salt diet should be cultivated from childhood. I hope everyone will pay attention to their children's diet; if a person grows up accustomed to a high-salt diet, it is very hard to change later in life.

Many people mistake being vegetarian for a light diet, overlooking salt intake; actually, a low-salt diet matters even more.