Salt: How Much Per Day and How to Cut It Painlessly

Sodium is essential: it maintains blood volume, carries nerve impulses and lets muscles contract. The problem is not sodium itself but the amount — most people eat roughly double the recommended intake, and the main source is not the shaker on the table. Cutting salt reliably lowers blood pressure, and with it the risk of stroke and heart attack. The encouraging part is that taste receptors adapt within two to four weeks, so lower-salt food stops tasting bland.

Getting the numbers straight#

The confusion comes from two different measures. Salt is sodium chloride, and sodium makes up about 40 % of its weight. So 5 g of salt equals roughly 2000 mg of sodium. Labels may show either figure, and they are not interchangeable: to convert sodium to salt, multiply by 2.5.

Measure	Salt	Sodium
WHO limit, adults	under 5 g/day	under 2000 mg/day
AHA ideal target	about 3.75 g/day	1500 mg/day
Actual average intake	9–12 g/day	3600–4800 mg/day
Physiological requirement	1–1.5 g/day	about 500 mg/day

Five grams is a level teaspoon. But this is not about measuring out a teaspoon and adding it to your food: those 5 grams include everything already delivered by bread, cheese, deli meat and sauces. Which is exactly why "I barely add salt" and "I eat little salt" are two very different statements.

Why salt raises blood pressure#

Sodium holds on to water. More sodium in the body means more circulating fluid and higher pressure against artery walls. Excess sodium also impairs the endothelium — the inner lining of blood vessels — reducing their ability to relax, and increases arterial stiffness. Over time the kidneys, which must excrete the surplus, and the left ventricle, which pumps against higher resistance, both take the strain.

The Cochrane review by He, Li and MacGregor found that a modest reduction of about 4.4 g of salt per day lowered systolic pressure by an average of 5.4 mmHg in people with hypertension and 2.4 mmHg in those with normal pressure. The effect is dose-dependent: the larger the cut, the bigger the drop. At population scale, a 4–5 mmHg shift means thousands of strokes prevented.

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Salt sensitivity: why responses differ#

Blood pressure responds to sodium differently in different people. Someone is called salt-sensitive when their pressure shifts noticeably with changes in sodium intake. Sensitivity is higher with older age, obesity, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and in a proportion of people of African ancestry. A young person with a healthy weight and healthy kidneys may show no change in their numbers for years — but vascular effects accumulate, and sensitivity rises with age in everyone.

The practical takeaway: don't wait for your blood pressure to climb before cutting salt. Equally, don't panic — this is a slow process, and gradual change works better than an abrupt one.

Where the salt actually hides#

This is where good intentions usually fail. Foods that don't taste especially salty deliver most of the sodium simply because of how much of them we eat.

Food	Salt per portion	Note
Bread, 2 slices (60 g)	0.7–1.0 g	The single biggest source in most countries
Deli sausage, 100 g	2.0–2.5 g	Half a day's limit
Hard cheese, 50 g	0.8–1.0 g	Brined cheeses are double
Soy sauce, 1 tbsp	2.5–3.0 g	Even the 'lite' versions are salty
Instant soup	3.0–5.0 g	Often an entire day's allowance
Ketchup, 2 tbsp	0.7 g	Plus the sugar
Salted nuts or chips, 50 g	0.6–1.0 g	A double portion is easy
Canned olives, 50 g	1.2 g	It's the brine

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A useful rule for labels: more than 1.5 g of salt (0.6 g sodium) per 100 g is high, under 0.3 g per 100 g is low. For foods eaten in large portions — bread, cereals, ready meals — even "medium" figures add up to a day's limit fast.

Cutting salt without losing flavour#

Going cold turkey almost always fails: the food tastes like cardboard. Gradual reduction works, because taste receptors adapt and within two to four weeks your previous salt level starts to taste excessive.

Step	What to do	Typical saving
Shift the source	Fewer ready-made products, more home cooking	up to 3–5 g/day
Acid instead of salt	Lemon, vinegar, tart berries added at the end	0.5–1 g per dish
Umami without salt	Tomato paste, mushrooms, onion and garlic, roasting	boosts flavour at lower salt
Spices and herbs	Smoked paprika, cumin, coriander, black pepper, fresh herbs	compensates subjectively
Salt at the end	Salt on the surface reads as more intense	20–30 % less than usual
Rinse canned goods	Beans, chickpeas, corn — under running water	up to 40 % of the can's sodium

A separate lever is to add potassium, not just remove sodium. Potassium helps the kidneys excrete sodium and relaxes blood vessels. It is abundant in beans and lentils, potatoes, spinach, bananas, dried apricots, avocado, tomatoes and yoghurt. The DASH diet — built on exactly that combination of vegetables, fruit, legumes and low-fat dairy with restricted sodium — lowers blood pressure by about as much as a single antihypertensive drug.

Sport, heat and sodium#

There are situations where extra sodium genuinely matters: endurance efforts beyond 90 minutes in the heat, heavy sweating, work in hot environments. Sweat carries 400–1500 mg of sodium per litre, and hours of exertion with plain water alone can cause hyponatraemia — a dangerous dilution of blood sodium. For a 45–60 minute gym session, though, no extra sodium is needed; a normal diet covers it comfortably.

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Iodine: why not to eliminate salt entirely#

Iodized salt remains the main dietary source of iodine for most people. Iodine is required to make thyroid hormones, and deficiency is especially harmful in pregnancy, where it affects fetal neurological development. So "I'll just cut out salt completely" is wrong twice over: you can't actually remove it (it's in the food), and switching to non-iodized sea salt is an easy way to lose your iodine supply. The sensible version is less salt, but iodized, plus enough fish and dairy.

The bottom line#

The limit is under 5 g of salt a day; reality is roughly double, and most of it comes not from the shaker but from manufactured foods — bread, deli meats, cheese, sauces and ready meals. Cutting salt reliably lowers blood pressure and stroke risk, and the effect is dose-dependent, so any reduction beats none. Do it gradually: fewer packaged products, acid and spices covering part of the salt, rinsed canned goods, more potassium from vegetables and legumes, and iodized salt. In a month your palate resets, and going back stops being appealing.