The latest report shows 80 per cent of Australian children are eating too much salt.
And fast food meals for children - not renowned for being healthy choices in the first place - have been shown to be even saltier in Australia than they are in other places around the world.
Excess salt consumption can lead to high blood pressure - a major risk for heart attack, stroke, and kidney disease.
And research shows that children with elevated blood pressure may continue to suffer this condition as adults.
It compounds health concerns over obesity levels, with one in four Australian children now classified as obese.
The lead author of the report is public health nutritionist Clare Farrand, from the George Institute for Global Health.
She says high salt consumption is mainly due to people eating so much fast food and overprocessed foods these days.
"So, our food environment largely determines the type of foods that we eat. And we know that we are continuously bombarded with advertising around different types of foods, particular unhealthy foods. Packaged and processed foods and fast foods tend to be really easily accessible. They're also very cheap. They're easily affordable. These are largely determining the amount of salt that we eat, because salt is hidden these overprocessed foods."
The report was co-produced by VicHealth, the health agency of the Victorian government, and the Heart Foundation.
Jenny Reimers is a dietitian with VicHealth.
She says poorer people are generally more susceptible to having a bad diet.
"Diets definitely vary by socioeconomic status, by particular population groups. So we do see in general - this is quite a generalisation - poorer diets in communities where there's more disadvantage."
Whilst the problem of excess salt consumption is one that extends across the community, Ms Reimers says types of food more commonly consumed in Australia these days as the community becomes more ethnically and religiously diverse may be contributing to the problem... for example, soy sauce.
But Ms Reimers says those foods are also becoming part of the solution.
"I think they could be part of it. We actually profiled some research last year on Asian-style sauces which did show they are really packed with salt. But you do see salt-reduced versions coming onto the market, so you do see this adaption in our food supply to start to respond to this call for a healthier range of products on our supermarket shelves."
A bigger part of the solution, though, according to Ms Reimers, is government intervention, such as has been implemented in Britain, with limits on the content of things like salt in food.
"Absolutely. Australia needs a comprehensive reformulation program. Which means, in plain terms, there's targets set for nutrients such as salt. Also, added sugar and saturated fat. They have a really good program like that in the UK. They do set salt targets. And that's why we saw, when we made the comparison between fast food kids' meals here in Australia versus the exact same meal in the UK, across pretty much everything we looked at, they were lower in the UK. Targets really work. So we need them in Australia."
Ms Reimers points out that humans do not naturally crave salty food, so the taste preference for it has been acquired based on exposure.
She says that's why it's important that parents limit the amount of salty food their children eat.
Ms Farrand is also calling for a market-based solution, with authorities working with the food industry.
"Food environments offer hundreds and hundreds of choices of these packaged and overprocessed foods. So, what we really need to do as well, is engage with the food industry and get them to reformulate our foods so that they are healthier overall."
The report's release comes as the federal opposition unveils a healthy food policy for children.
If it wins the next election, the Labor party says it will restore funding to the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden program, which it funded when it was last in office.
The program funded school children being taught about how to grow fruit, vegetables and herbs, and then use them to make healthy meals.
Ms Reimers says that's a good idea in terms of teaching children about food supply and healthy food.
But Ms Reimers also warns that the battle against unhealthy food is a global one.
"A lot of children would believe that food comes from a supermarket. That fresh produce is always going to be naturally lower in those problem nutrients: salt, and added sugar, and saturated fat. So, yeah, those kind of programs are definitely needed. But they can't do that global job of changing the processed food supply."
It's a global issue for which many are now seeking local solutions.
