<i>Cutting salt 'should be global priority'</i>

The UN must make reducing salt intake a global health priority, say UK scientists.
Writing in the British Medical Journal they say a 15% cut in consumption could save 8.5 million lives around the world over the next decade.
If voluntary measures do not work, the food industry should be compelled to cut salt levels, it says.
The report - by researchers at the Universities of Warwick and Liverpool - says that after cutting tobacco consumption, getting people to eat less salt would be the most cost effective way to improve global health.
The researchers say there is a "consistent, direct relation between salt intake and blood pressure". High blood pressure in turn is linked to heart disease, stroke and kidney problems.
They point to the US, where cutting salt intake by a third would save tens of thousands of lives and save up to $24 billion annually in health care costs.
But with 70% of deaths from strokes and heart attacks occurring in developing countries, the report says the impact of reduced intake would be global.
However, the researchers warn that both widespread education and engagement with the food industry will be needed to limit the salt content of processed foods.
One of the report authors, Professor Francisco Cappucio, of the University of Warwick, said the food industry had a "huge responsibility" to take action.
He said: "The reformulation of food in their hands could deliver a massive impact to public health in the same way that at the moment it is contributing to a huge burden of disease.
"They train your taste buds - the more salt you eat the less salt you taste the more salt you want, to get that saltiness.
"It is quite a vicious circle, and these circles create profit and it is important that these profits are balanced against the health of the population."