Bolivia moves to banish salt from restaurant tables

Bolivia has a novel idea to cut down the salt intake of its people - banish it from restaurant tables.

About a third of Bolivia's population suffers from hypertension, or high blood pressure, and the government blames salt for it.

"We must remove table salt," announced Guillermo Mendoza, vice minister of consumer rights, upon taking office.

Mendoza also wants restaurants to indicate to diners how much salt and sugar is in their meals.

People around the world eat twice as much salt as they should, which translates into 1.65 million heart-related deaths per year, researchers said last year.

Excess salt can cause high blood pressure, which is leading factor in heart disease and stroke, according to the study in the New England Journal of Medicine released in August 2014.

Led by scientists at Harvard and Tufts University, the study combined data from 205 surveys of sodium intake in 66 countries around the world.

"These 1.65 million deaths represent nearly one in 10 of all deaths from cardiovascular causes worldwide," said lead researcher Dariush Mozaffarian, dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University.

"These new findings inform the need for strong policies to reduce dietary sodium in the United States and across the world."

The average level of global daily sodium intake in 2010 was 3.95 grams per day, nearly double the World Health Organization recommendation of two grams per day, the study found.

Although salt intake was higher than it should be in all world regions, the numbers varied.

Regional averages ranged from 2.18 grams per day in sub-Saharan Africa to 5.51 grams per day in Central Asia.