Salty Foods Increasing High Blood Pressure in Children

Salty meals may taste good, but paired with high levels of body mass indexes and obesity, they may be causing high blood pressure among adolescents.

According to a new study in the American Heart Association's journal Hypertension, the risk for elevated blood pressure levels among children and adolescents has increased by 27 percent over the last 13 years.

While doctors have known that obesity, high BMI and excess belly fat can raise the risk of high blood pressure among adult sand children, researchers have had trouble isolating other factors leading to high blood pressure.

In the new study, researchers discovered that sodium intake can also contribute to high blood pressure levels.

Researchers examined the records of more than 11,500 children between the ages of 8 and 17 participating in the National health and Nutrition Examniation Survey, analyzing data from 1988 to 1994 and from 1999 to 2008. By doing so, they discovered the relationship between high salt intake and a risk for higher blood pressure levels.

More than 80 percent of children from each time period had a daily sodium intake of more than 2,300 milligrams. This goes against the American Heart Association's recommendation that we consume no more than 1,500 milligrams of sodium daily.

"It is a public health issue that our children, their blood pressures are higher," study co-author Dr. Bonita Falkner, professor of medicine and pediatrics at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, told FoxNews.com. "Though it may be only a 4 to 5 mm Hg (increase), that extra pressure burden at a young age, carried through life, can become a large burden.

"The salt content of the food supply has increased markedly over the past few decades, and there's been a progressive rise in the proportion of the average daily diet that is processed food. There's probably much more salt exposure in children now," he said. 

Falkner said he hopes the study will help people realize the negative impact sodium can have on blood pressure levels.