How much salt should people consume?

The human body needs some sodium to function properly.  Sodium does the following: helps to keep the balance of fluids right, transmit nerve impulses, and influences muscle contraction and relaxation.    However, the body can get all the sodium it needs from foods. It’s not necessary to get it from salt.

Every day, the average American consumes about 1 1/2 teaspoons  (8,500 milligrams) of salt, which contains about 3,400 mg. of sodium.  That amount is 50% higher than the 2,300 mg. of sodium recommended by federal guidelines for healthy people.  Furthermore, the American Heart Association recommends only 1,500 mg. of sodium for older people and those with borderline high blood pressure, heart conditions, kidney disease, or diabetes.  

A Parade article entitled “Don’t Pass the Salt, Please,” (3/28/10) says that  cutting one’s salt intake in half would greatly reduce the rate of coronary artery disease and heart attacks. Other estimates say that reductions in sodium could prevent more than 100,000 U.S. deaths every year.  Click on the following link to learn more about the potential dangers of using too much salt.

Most of the salt we consume comes not from the foods we prepare ourselves but from processed food and restaurant meals.  In a report commissioned by Congress, the Institute of Medicine recently recommended that the FDA require a gradual (over the next decade) decrease in the amount of salt in prepared foods.  Will the FDA adopt this proposal?  That remains to be seen.

For a humorous take on the dangers of overdoing salt, watch this.

Source(s):

Harvard Heart Letter  "Potential salt assault July 2010, p.3.

Parade  "Stay Healthy:  Don't Pass the Salt, Please," March 28, 2010