<International Circulation>:  How do you get people to reduce salt intake?  

  《国际循环》：那么您有没有什么好的建议来帮助人们减少食盐摄入量呢？
 
    Prof. MacGregor:  It all depends on where the salt comes from in the diet.  We are perhaps lucky， or unlucky rather， that nearly all the salt in our diets comes from the food industry.  Nearly 80% of the salt we eat is already put in the food before we have any control.  Nearly all the things you buy at the supermarket， when you eat out， go to the canteen， and fast food， that is where our salt comes from.  Nowadays we don’t actually cook all that much so only about 15% of people’s salt intake comes from salt we add ourselves.  The main target in western countries is to get the food industry to slowly reduce the amount of salt， most of which are totally unnecessary， put in our food.  That has been very successful in the United Kingdom.  We now have most of the products in the UK have been reduced in terms of their salt content by about 30%.  Bread is the biggest single source of salt in our diet and all the bread in the UK has been reduced by about 30%.  That means that everyone has a reduction in salt intake while still go on eating the same foods as normal.  As much as we would like to we are not trying to change the diet of people， but rather just reduce the salt intake.  The problem in Asian-Pacific areas， in particular northern China， is that most of the salt is added by the consumer.  In this case you have to try to persuade the consumer to use less salt.  This is much more difficult because you have got to persuade them that it is a toxic substance that is killing millions of Chinese， and I am quite serious that high salt intake is indeed killing millions of Chinese， that they have to stop using it in such large quantities.  The beauty of that is that if you do start to slowly reduce salt intake people actually get used to food with less salt， salt taste receptors become more sensitive， and people will then much prefer food with less salt.  We find that now in the UK and England that people prefer food with less salt more.   When I’m abroad I find that the food is so salty that it tastes horrible.  High salt foods is an acquired taste where people get used to eating so much salt that it becomes sort of addictive.  It is necessary to wean people off of it slowly and get them to eat less salt.

    MacGregor教授：这取决于我们饮食中的食盐来自于哪里。我们可能很幸运，或者说是更不幸运的是，我们饮食中几乎所有的食盐都来自于食品工业。我们食用的几乎80%的食盐在我们进行任何控制之前就已经加入到食品中了。你在超级市场中购买的几乎所有外带食物，你在室外、食堂吃的饭或者食用的快餐都是我们摄入食盐的来源。现在我们实际上并不像以前那样常常在家做饭，所以人们摄入食盐总量中只有15%来自于我们自己添加的食盐。西方发达国家主要的目标是让食品工业缓慢减少使用的食盐量，其中的大部分食盐是完全不需要添加到我们食品中的。这在英国中实施的很成功。现在英国生产的大部分食品的食盐含量下降了30%。面包是我们饮食中最大的食盐来源，英国所有的面包中食盐含量都减少了大约30%。这意味着人们在继续食用和平时一样的食物时食盐摄入量减少了。只要我们愿意，我们就能在不改变人们饮食的情况下减少食盐摄入量。亚太地区特别是中国北方的问题是，大部分的食盐是被消费者自己添加的。在这种情况下你不得不劝说消费者们减少食盐用量。这就很不容易做到，因为你必须劝说人们食盐是一种有害物质，能杀死成千上万的中国人，我非常认真的声明，高食盐摄入量真的是能导致成千上万的中国人死亡，所以他们必须停止使用如此大量的食盐。庆幸的事情是，如果你开始缓慢的减少食盐摄入量，就会逐渐习惯于更低盐含量的饮食。我们发现现在在英国和英格兰，人们更喜欢低盐含量的食物。当我去国外就会发现，食物非常咸，吃起来味道很可怕。高盐含量的饮食是后天获得的味觉，当人们习惯于使用大量食盐的时候就会对此表现出依赖。必须使人们缓慢戒掉高盐饮食并让他们习惯于食用低盐食物。