Should I worry about my salt intake?

Salt, AKA sodium chloride, has been used to preserve food and enhance flavours for thousands of years. Can it really be a health hazard?

“The cure for anything is salt,” says a character in Karen Blixen’s short story The Deluge at Norderney. “Sweat, tears, or the sea.” But while there’s a lot to commend a long run, a little cry or a pensive look at the wide blue ocean, everyday life has got a lot saltier since Blixen’s era – and salt is no longer the cure-all it once was. So what should we be doing about it?

First things first: the World Health Organization recommends capping your salt intake at 5g a day, and keeping it even lower if possible. That’s because, according to a large body of evidence, ingesting a lot of it is linked to high blood pressure, which in turn is a risk factor for heart disease and stroke. (Salt is technically sodium chloride; it’s the sodium that seems to lead to most of its ill-effects, which is why American brands tend to tout their reduced-sodium options.)

Continue reading…

About Author