Tinned soup hidden salt cancer risk

by Paul Conneally | January 31, 2009 at 01:14 am

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Next week is Salt Awareness Week and the aim is to kick start a campaign to make people more aware of the 'hidden salt' content of everyday processed foods in a bid to help people avoid increasing the risk of getting cancers, heart disease, high blood pressure and other diseases associated with high salt intake.

The World Cancer Research Fund has said that of foods with very high hidden salt content some tinned soups are amongst the highest and this can lead to stomach cancer.

Fresh homemade soups made with vegetables and with no or low salt content pose no cancer threat and in fact might according to some studies offer some protection.

So the advice is bin the tins and settle down to some healthy hearty homemade soups.

Dr Thompson said: "Soups are one of the worst culprits for hidden salt. Some brands have as much as half the recommended daily intake per serving.

"Fresh vegetable-based soups tend to have less salt than tinned cream-based soups that include bacon or ham, but even some of the healthier brands of vegetable soups still contain over a third of our recommended daily intake. This is why it's so important for people to always check the labels of products," she said.

"This is why we need to get the message across that limiting salt intake is an important part of having a healthy diet."