Salt: the facts

Many of us in the UK eat too much salt. Too much salt can raise your blood pressure, which puts you at increased risk of health problems such as heart disease and stroke. But a few simple steps can help you to cut your salt intake.

You don't have to add salt to food to be eating too much: 75% of the salt we eat is already in everyday foods such as bread, breakfast cereal and ready meals.

But a diet that is high in salt can cause raised blood pressure, which around one third of adults in the UK already have.

High blood pressure often has no symptoms. But if you have it, you are more likely to develop heart disease or have a stroke.

Cutting down on salt reduces blood pressure, which means that your risk of developing stroke or heart disease is reduced.

For tips on how to eat less salt, read Cut down on salt.

Foods that contain salt

Some foods are almost always high in salt because of the way they are made.

Other foods, such as bread and breakfast cereals, can contribute a lot of salt to our diet. But that’s not because these foods are always high in salt: it’s because we eat a lot of them.

High salt foods

These foods are almost always high in salt. To cut down on salt, eat them less often or have smaller amounts:

anchovies
bacon
cheese
gravy granules
ham
olives
pickles
prawns
salami
salted and dry roasted nuts
salt fish
smoked meat and fish
soy sauce
stock cubes
yeast extract

Foods that can be high in salt

In these foods, the salt content can vary widely between different brands or varieties. That means you can cut down on salt by comparing brands, and choosing the one that is lower in salt. Nutrition labels can help you do this.

These foods include:

bread products such as crumpets, bagels and ciabatta
pasta sauces
crisps
pizza
ready meals
soup
sandwiches
sausages
tomato ketchup, mayonnaise and other sauces
breakfast cereals

How much salt?

Adults should eat no more than 6g of salt a day: that's around one full teaspoon. Children should eat less (see below for recommendations for babies and children).

Of course, one easy way to eat less salt is to stop adding salt to your food during cooking and at the dinner table. If you regularly add salt to food when cooking, try cutting it out or adding less: you’ll rediscover the real tastes of your favourite foods. And when you sit down to eat, taste your food first to see if it needs salt.

Use nutrition labels

Cutting back on added salt is only a small part of the solution. To really cut down, you need to become aware of the salt that is already in the everyday foods you buy, and choose lower salt options.

Fortunately, nutrition labels on food packaging now make this a lot easier. Most pre-packed foods have a nutrition label on the pack or side of the packaging.

Many foods also display information on the salt content on the front of the packaging. This may show the salt content as a percentage of your Guideline Daily Amount, or display a traffic light to show whether the food is low, medium or high in salt. Where traffic lights are used, red means high: leave these foods for an occasional treat, and aim to eat mainly foods that are green or amber.

Look at the figure for salt per 100g:

High is more than 1.5g salt per 100g (or 0.6g sodium). May display a red traffic light.
Low is 0.3g salt or less per 100g (or 0.1g sodium). May display a green traffic light.

If the amount of salt per 100g is in between 0.3g and 1.5g, that is a medium level of salt, and the packaging may display an amber traffic light.

As a rule, aim for foods that have a low or medium salt content. Leave high-salt foods for occasional use.

For more tips to help you choose foods that are lower in salt, see Cut down on salt.

Salt and sodium

Salt is also called sodium chloride.

Sometimes, food labels only give the figure for sodium. But there is a simple way to work out how much salt you are eating from the sodium figure:

Salt = sodium x 2.5

Babies, children and salt

Babies and children under 11 should have less salt than adults.

Babies under a year old need less than 1g of salt a day, as their kidneys can’t cope with more. If a baby is breastfed, he or she will get the right amount of salt from breast milk. Formula milk contains a similar amount.

Never add salt to your baby’s milk or food, and don’t give food that isn’t specifically for babies as it’s often too high in salt.

The daily recommended maximum amount of salt children should eat depends on age:

1 to 3 years: 2g salt a day (0.8g sodium)
4 to 6 years: 3g salt a day (1.2g sodium)
7 to 10 years: 5g salt a day (2g sodium)
11 years and over: 6g salt a day (2.4g sodium)

Making sure your child doesn’t eat too much salt means you’re also helping to ensure that they don’t develop a taste for salty food, which makes them them less likely to eat too much salt as an adult.

Say no to salt

Dietitian Azmina Govindji talks about the risks associated with eating too much salt, such as high blood pressure. Find out how much your daily salt intake should be, what foods are high in salt and how to understand food labels.

Last reviewed: 01/02/2011

Next review due: 01/02/2013

Comments

9 Comments about ‘Salt: the facts’

Our rules:

Comments are personal views. Any information they give has not been checked and may not be accurate.

bulbfish said on 04 December 2011

I have been cooking without salt for four years and do not miss it in the slightest. I find that many vegetables contain their own natural salts which are released during cooking. Food cooked without salt does taste better to me, just add a little garlic, herbs, lemon juice or whatever suits the dish you are cooking. My taste has become so sensitive to added salt that I cannot stand to eat any dish that has been prepared using it.

foodie said on 17 November 2011

I feel that the use of the word " facts" is misleading. Much of the information is purely assumption and opinion.
I love food and the thing that really iritates me about the whole salt in food debate is when people suggest that you can cook without adding it during cooking. Food cooked without salt does NOT taste better. A little salt in the cooking process enhances the food. If salt is added during cooking, it should be unnecesary to add it later. If food is cooked without salt it is bland and people end up putting unhealthy ammounts onto the food at the table.A small ammount in the cooking ends up as being a negligable ammount by the time it is divided ammungst all those eating and much of it remains in the drained off cooking water.
This moderate and reasonable use of salt will not GIVE you high blood pressure, but if you already suffer with with it, it may obviously be wise to limit your salt intake.

Once again common sense seems to be in short supply.

Pravda said on 22 June 2011

For centuries salt, or to give it its scientific name, sodium chloride (NaCl), has been regarded as one of the most important items of diet for health. Salt was so important that people were actually paid in salt (it is the origin of the word 'salary'), and it was used extensively as a valuable commodity for bartering. Then, suddenly, in the 20th Century it became a killer: indicted as a cause of hypertension and, thence, of stroke and of heart disease. The evidence on which this was based arose from poorly controlled cross-cultural studies carried out earlier in the century. At least in the debates on the desirability of fats and fibre, trials were carried out in an attempt to provide evidence to support the hypotheses, but no similar trials have been carried out in the case of salt. The salt hypothesis has no large-scale studies to back it up. The intervention studies that have been carried out are confined to small numbers of people with high blood pressure, and many of these have failed to show that lowering salt intake has any significant effect on blood pressure in those with hypertension. And no tests have been conducted on those whose blood pressure is normal to show that reducing salt intake will reduce the risk of their becoming hypertensive.

racheldawn said on 08 June 2011

I appreciate the level of detail in this article and think I will find it useful. I have just saved the high and low salt figures into my phone, and the equation to work out sodium levels. I have just had a blood test which revealed I have high sodium levels in my blood. I'm awaiting mysecond test to confirm and am not sure of the reasons why I have this; if I have too much salt or too little water. I dont understand as yet. I generally eat healthily but my diet could be improved. So I'm going to use this information to check the foods I eat and make sure I'm getting the salt that I need but not too much.

User545928 said on 09 April 2011

You don't say why salt increases blood pressure. Is it true that the large bowel (colon) absorbs the salt and if one had no bowel they could eat as much salt as the wished?

fulcrum said on 21 February 2011

People actually die very quick when they do not have enough salt - hyponatremia, when runners only drink water and take no salt - they just collapse and die.
So, better not tell people to cut salt out.
Water does have no salt, fruits and veggies have no salt, raw meat has very little salt. And if you boil everything together there is still no salt in them.
So, better to add some salt to this stew than getting the salt from chips and snacks.

Blue Pearl said on 07 February 2011

I do not understand why the video is called 'Say No to Salt' when it simple suggests people cut down from high levels of Salt. Why are so many videos negative rather than encouraging positive behaviours? Just how much of a risk is higher levels of sale intake than the recommended daily limit?

nikjr said on 08 May 2009

What about if a person has an active lifestyle. I often go on 4 hr + bike rides and consume large amounts of water - to make up for the additional loss.

Should I make a point of adding salt to my cooking, after intensive exercise???

User59037 said on 06 February 2009

I am a person who does not like salt but my partner used to eat a lot of it. I convinced him to give it up but replacing the salt in the food by other herbs such as Herbs de provence, Sage, Pepper (both black and white), parsley and corriander. For example, cooking a piece of fish with parsley, lemon and garlic would give it a sharp-ish flavour which would replace the need for salt. Try it, it really works!!