We sat down with Dr. Mary T. Bassett, former Deputy Director of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention for New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to discuss high blood pressure in Harlem and the impact of salt on hypertension.

Q: Heart disease is one of the leading causes of death in New York City, what can people do to lower their risk?
A: One contributor to heart disease is high blood pressure (hypertension). In New York City, one in four people has been diagnosed and treated for this health issue. In Harlem, however, one in three people has been diagnosed and treated for hypertension.

One of the ways we are looking into helping people lower their high blood pressure is to reduce the amount of salt they eat. Seventy five percent of salt (sodium) in our diet comes from processed foods or restaurant foods. Only a small amount of salt comes from what you put on your food at the dinner table through the salt shaker. Because most of the salt we eat comes from sources that are hard for individuals to control (like processed foods or restaurant food), we are working on discussing what can be done to lower salt in food with members of the food industry. The United Kingdom has been successful in lowering salt in restaurants by working with the food industry in that country. For example, a hamburger in the United Kingdom has less salt than a hamburger here in the United States.

Q: How can people reduce the amount of salt in their diet?
A: It is important to learn to read the nutrition labels on food packages. There are many foods that you may not think have salt in them, but they do. For example, a bran muffin may have more salt in it than an order of French fries. Other foods such as bread and cereal, even though they taste sweet, contain sodium.

It may be hard for people to imagine taking salt out of their diet because they are used to the way food tastes with salt. But when you slowly reduce the amount of salt you put in your food, you will get used to how it tastes.

About Dr. Bassett:
From 2002 - 2009, Dr. Mary T. Bassett, served as the Deputy Director of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention for New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene overseeing the District Public Health Program and the bureaus of Chronic Disease, Tobacco Control, School Health, Minority Health, and Maternal Infant and Reproductive Health. Originally from New York City, she graduated from Harvard and Columbia Universities and completed her medical training at Harlem Hospital Center. She serves as an Associate Editor for the American Journal of Public Health and recently returned to her passion of promoting primary health care in Africa. She is now with the Doris Duke Foundation and is serving as the Associate Director for its African Health Initiative.

About the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene:
The New York City Department of Health's Division of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention collects information on a variety of health issues and develops a number of health policies and health programs to address chronic disease in New York City. The Department of Health and the Division of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention are best known for their efforts to get calorie counts labeled on restaurant menus, the ban on trans fats in food and the ban on smoking in bars and restaurants.

Harlem Word is a series of interviews with community health experts written by HHPC and reviewed by our Health Advisory Board.