The UK Department of Health has actually sponsored advertising on buses warning of the dangers of salt, treating it almost as a poison. In fact it is a mineral with an important role in body chemistry, and has been used to preserve and flavour food for millennia. It is controversial, though, and there is evidence linking it with High blood pressure and increased risk of strokes. Some studies have suggested that when people drastically reduce their salt intake they can run increased risk of kidney damage and even of heart disease.
The sensible course seems to be “all things in moderation,” though this is harder to do that you might suppose, given the high salt content of some prepared foods. One survey found that a single pizza had an entire day’s recommended 6mg of salt in it. The thing is that salt does make food tastier, and people like that. I eat a fairly low salt diet, hardly adding it to anything except eggs and cold meats. I sometimes use salt substitute, though I suppose my preference for salted cashew nuts gives me more salt.
One local authority health body had the idea of asking fish-and-chip shops to have fewer holes in their salt shakers to ‘nudge’ people into using less of it. I thought they might have visited a French bistrot I sometimes eat at when I saw only three holes in the shaker! But they turned out to be very large holes, so a fair amount of salt came out of them when I tested it.
Filed under: Updates |
Madsen Pirie 
Recommended daily dose. Receommended by whom and based on what evidence? Presumably the same as the 5 a day fruit and veg, and daily unit alcohol intake… from the Out Of Thin Air Research Establishment run by Prof. On A Nice Government Earner.
The kidney is designed to regulate electrolyte balance… that’s its job, to get rid of too much salt.
Too much salt = get thirsty = drink water = pee a lot = excrete salt.
We are told the toffs in Government and Opposition had the best education that money could buy, but as my Grandma used to say, money can’t buy brains.