Salt has a bad reputation among health-conscious people, but the picture isn’t black and white. The truth about whether salt is good or bad depends on the individual. Some people need more, while others need less. Read on to learn the official recommendations and the risks of both high & low salt intake.
The Salt Controversy
People tend to think that a food component is either good or bad, while most of the time the truth is somewhere in between.
Anytime there’s a controversy or a mix of opinions, the good/bad paradigm is usually flawed.
Something can be good in one way and bad in another.
- It could be good for one person and bad for another.
- It could be good in one situation and bad in another.
The reason we think in these terms is that it causes us cognitive strain (or ‘dissonance’) to believe something we’re doing can be both harmful and helpful. We want the benefits, but we don’t want the harm.
Salt is one of those things that have no clear answers but is dependent on the person and dose.
Just like with saturated fat and the controversies surrounding it, people tend to swing between the extremes when it comes to salt, instead of finding the right balance.
How Much Salt Do We Consume?
Salt consists of sodium (40%) and chloride (60%), both essential nutrients needed by your body to function.
The average sodium included in the typical US diet is between 3,400-3,840 mg/day (R, R).
It is estimated that salt intake in paleolithic times was less than 1 g/day (R), much less than our 9.6 g/day in the average American diet (R).
In fact, an article in the Journal of Cancer Detection and Prevention observes that from Paleolithic to modern times, man’s intake of potassium has significantly decreased, while sodium has significantly increased. The Sodium/Potassium ratio has been reduced by about 20X (R).
Where does our salt come from?
- About 75% of our daily salt intake comes from processed foods (R).
- Only 15% comes from knowingly adding salt (ie, cooking and table salt) (R).
- The remaining 10% occurs naturally in whole foods (R).
Salt Intake Recommendations
Major United States health organizations advise limiting our sodium
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