Hongkongers are eating twice as much salt as recommended by the World Health Organisation, raising the risk of strokes in people of all ages, university researchers say.
The average daily diet in the city includes about 10g of salt, while the WHO recommends less than 5g, Dr Ruth Chan Suk-mei, medicine and therapeutics research associate at the Chinese University, said.
One reason is the large quantities of processed food - which has a high salt content - being consumed.
Strokes, caused mainly by high blood pressure, are the fourth most common cause of death and the prime cause of disability in the city.
Anybody eating a typical meal could exceed 10g of salt by lunchtime without even realising it.
Figures from the university's Centre for Nutritional Studies and the government's Centre for Food Safety show a typical breakfast of satay beef noodles contains 6.08g of salt, and a lunch of beef brisket rice contains 5.44g - a total of 11.52g.
The risks are underlined by a university study in Hong Kong last year. The researchers found that strokes on average afflicted 13 out of every 100,000 people in the city each year from 1995 to 2001. This rose to 15 in 2005 to 2007. In 2010, Department of Health figures show there were 3,423 deaths from strokes - 8 per cent of all deaths.