Salt and Health
Salt is made up of Sodium Chloride. Salt is the biggest source of sodium in our diets, and it is the sodium that can affect our health.
There are different types of salt; Himalayan, Rock and Sea for example, however they all contain similar amounts of sodium chloride and all affect our health in the same way.
Our bodies need sodium to help regulate fluid in the body, but we are currently eating about 8 grams a day (2g more than the current government daily limit of 6g – about 1 teaspoon), so we have a little bit of reducing to do!
Many of us don’t feel that we’re eating too much salt, and that’s because the majority of the salt we eat comes from salt already in the food we buy. Typical examples of salty food include baked beans, soups, processed meat, ready meals, some cereals and even bread. You may even be surprised to hear you can also find a lot of salt in pre made salads, pasta sauces and meat alternatives. Foods don’t need to taste salty to be salty, even seemingly ‘healthy’ products.
What’s the deal with salt and health?
Regularly eating too much salt puts us at increased risk of developing high blood pressure. High blood pressure increases the risk of stroke and heart disease – two of the main causes of death and disability in the UK and worldwide.
A high salt diet is also linked with osteoporosis, kidney disease and stomach cancer.
But we need salt for flavour!
Salt. The magic ingredient to make food flavoursome… right?
Not quite. There are an abundance of flavours out there. Our taste buds have adjusted to the taste of salt, so let us adjust them back and make them more sensitive to the natural flavours of food.
Alternative flavours for food include:
- Herbs
- Spices (such as curry powders)
- Lemon or Lime Juice
- Vinegar
- Onions
- Garlic
- Shallots
- Ginger
- Chillies
I don’t add salt to food – how will I know which foods are high, low or medium in salt?
We have a handy shopping guide leaflet which gives examples of high, medium and low salt food.
There is also our free FoodSwitch app that allows you to scan the barcodes of food and drink products and instantly see whether they are high (red), medium (amber) or low (green) in fat, saturates, sugars and salt. It also searches the database for similar but healthier alternative products.
Product labels may have front of pack colour coding, however if they don’t you can use this guide to help.
Tips to reduce salt
- Use fresh, tinned or frozen vegetables with no added salt
- Cook from scratch using unprocessed meat, fish and vegetables
- Avoid adding salt during cooking or at the table, try adding other flavours such as pepper, garlic and lemon instead
- Choose lower salt-stocks, use half a stock cubes, or make your own low-salt stock
- Remember sea salt and rock salt have the same effect on the body as normal table and cooking salt
- If you add salt to your food, reduce it gradually over time. It takes about 3-4 weeks for our taste buds to adjust.
- Always remember to check the labels and choose lower salt options
- Swap from branded products to retailers’ own brands, as they (tend to be) lower in salt
- Look for lower salt and ‘no added salt’ versions of your usual foods in the supermarket e.g. canned vegetables, tinned fish in spring water, ketchup and baked beans
