The average person in Guangdong consumes 9.1 grams of salt a day, even though the World Health Organization recommends a maximum of 5g a day. This is sending around 50,000 people to early graves every year in the province, Xinhua reports.

Cooking in salt is one of the most characteristic methods in traditional Guangdong cuisine, and this is taking a toll on the province’s health. One in five adults has high blood pressure. This increases to one in two people over 50 years old.

On July 29, the Preventive Medicine Association and the Provincial Salt Industry Group Corporation got together to launch the Guangdong Province Salt Reduction Initiative. They are under no illusions about changing the cooking or eating habits of Guangdong people, so the initiative will replace traditional sodium salt with low sodium, low potassium salt over the next three to five years.

In fact, Guangdong’s salt intake is below the national average, which is 10.6g a day. In Beijing it is 13.4g a day.

But this doesn’t make it any less of a public health time bomb. Liao Xinbo, deputy head of the Provincial Health Department, pointed out that as well as high blood pressure, excessive salt consumption is also bad for the skin, and can cause cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.

Aside from much traditional Cantonese cuisine, the American Heart Association has a list of salty foods you should avoid.