Should bread be targeted as a vector to reduce sodium intake in Morocco?

Abdelfettah Derouiche; Ali Jafri; Younes ElKardi; Mohammed Jabari; Rachida Habbal; Khalid El Attaoui; Mohamed Alami

doi:10.7287/peerj.preprints.188v1

Should bread be targeted as a vector to reduce sodium intake in Morocco?

Abdelfettah Derouiche¹, Ali Jafri ¹, Younes ElKardi¹, Mohammed Jabari², Rachida Habbal³, Khalid El Attaoui⁴, Mohamed Alami⁴

1 Ben M'sik Faculty of Sciences, Université Hassan II Mohammedia Casablanca, Casablanca, Morocco

2 Division d'hygiène de Sidi Othmane, Casablanca, Morocco

3 Service de Cardiologie, CHU Ibn Rochd, Casablanca, Morocco

4 All With the Heart (non-profit), Casablanca, Morocco

DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.188v1

Published: 2014-01-03
Accepted: 2014-01-03

Subject Areas: Health Policy, Nutrition
Keywords: salt intake, hypertension, food behavior, diet, Morocco, bread consumption

Licence: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Cite this article: Derouiche A, Jafri A, ElKardi Y, Jabari M, Habbal R, El Attaoui K, Alami M. 2014. Should bread be targeted as a vector to reduce sodium intake in Morocco? PeerJ PrePrints 2:e188v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.188v1

Abstract

Background: High blood pressure is a serious public health problem in Morocco; the national survey of cardiovascular risk factors in Morocco found a prevalence of 33.6% of people with high blood pressure (HBP) with a higher prevalence among women, also, the World Health Organization estimated the prevalence of HBP in 2008 at 41.2%. Our study aimed to evaluate the amount of salt provided by the consumption of bread, since it is a staple food, in daily food intake and compare it to the recommendations. This study aims to raise awareness about salt consumption and its impact in causing high blood pressure. Methods: We used the MOHR method to quantify sodium in bread samples from 80 professional bakeries in Casablanca. Results: Results showed that the average amount of salt used in the preparation of bread is 17.42 ± 1.28 g / kg, which is the equivalent of a daily intake of 8 to 9 g of salt through bread alone, and exceeds all recommendations. Conclusion: We can only recommend using it as a vector for the programme of awareness about salt over-consumption and its impact on raising the prevalence of hypertension.