By Lisa Rapaport (Reuters Health) – Government policies designed to reduce how much salt people eat may be cost-effective even without considering the potential healthcare savings, a recent study suggests. “We know that too much salt in the diet causes hundreds of thousands of preventable cardiovascular deaths a year,” said senior study author Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, dean of the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy in Boston. Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death worldwide, killing almost one in every three people.