Overview

Abstract (English)

Background: Food environment is recognized by Health Canada as a priority area for investigation due to its potential role in influencing dietary intake, where healthy eating is central to overall health and nutrition-related chronic disease risk reduction. In particular, dietary sodium is an important health concern since the majority of Canadians consume sodium in excess of their daily requirements. Objective: To examine sodium consumption by Canadians based on food environment. Methods: A cross-sectional analysis of sodium intake (energy adjusted) among 33,661 Canadians, >2 years, from the Canadian Community Health Survey Cycle 2.2, based on food environment, including: location, occasion, and time. Results: By location, the highest energy-adjusted sodium consumption was consumed at home with means ranging from 2233-2694mg/day across all dietary reference intake (DRI) age and sex groups. This was followed by 338-851mg/day of overall sodium consumed outside the home. Dinner (851-1299mg/day), lunch (811-1023mg/day), followed by breakfast (397-551mg/day) and snack (303-591mg/day) occasions contributed to sodium consumption in this order. When assessed on an hourly scale, sodium intake peaked around 7-9am, 10am-1pm, and 5-7pm, corresponding to occasions. Conclusions and Implications: Targeting sodium reduction education to meals consumed at home and different settings outside home and especially during later in the day, may be most effective in total reduction in sodium intake among Canadians aged >2 years. Assessment of sodium consumption by food environment can be used to inform sodium reduction policies and program development.

Abstract (French)

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