Smoking vs salt consumption: A choice of two devils or one good and the other bad?

It is very easy to dismiss any association between smoking and salt consumption in terms of harm they can cause to the body.  There is widespread consensus that smoking is never good for humans.  Smoking is associated with heart diseases such as atherosclerosis.  In contrast, consumption of salt can be beneficial to the body.  Salt helps in the regulation of blood pressure and the nervous system.   These perceptions have wider implications in health policies regarding smoking and salt consumption.

Smoking in public places has been banned by a number of western countries including England, Scotland and some states in the United States.  There are also calls for smoking in cars to be banned to protect non-smokers particularly children from the harmful effect of smoking.  Furthermore, displaying of brands on cigarette packets has also been banned in countries such as Australia and United Kingdom to discourage young people from smoking.

Similar steps have not been taken to educate the public about the dangers of salt consumption and restrict access to sources of salty food such as fast food restaurants.  There is also no mandatory requirement for fast food restaurants to include limited amount of salt in their food.  In the absence of this regulation food restaurants can add unacceptable amount of salt to their food at the expense of consumers’ health.

This lack of coherent policies on excessive salt consumption and the dangers of consuming too much salt including the risk of hypertension and stroke indicates that a lot of people can easily exceed the recommended daily allowance (RDA) for salt which varies from countries to countries.  Salt is present in almost every food we eat.  There is salt in food we buy from supermarket and cook at home.  There is also salt in fast food we buy from restaurants.  We consume salt every time whether we are eating at home or eating out with friends or family members without knowing the amount of salt we consume.

Unlike people eating salty food without recognising it, smokers seem to be fully aware of their action when they engage in smoking behaviour and can choose not to smoke at any particular period of time.  The only people who may not be aware that they are smoking indirectly (passive smoking) are non smokers who may be present in the environment where smoking is being done or has recently taken place.  Thus, people who do not choose to smoke or are not present in a smoking environment cannot be direct victims of smoking.

These show that there is bias attitude against smoking and in favour of excessive salt consumption even though people are more aware of the dangers posed by smoking than dangers posed by excessive salt consumption.  It is important therefore that people are educated about the dangers of excessive salt consumption in the same way that people are informed about the risk of smoking.