Eating style
Low-sodium eating
How much salt is too much, where it actually comes from, and the recipes here with 600 mg of sodium or less per serving.
The numbers
Sodium is the part of salt linked to blood pressure; a gram of salt contains about 400 mg of it. The WHO recommends adults stay under 2,000 mg of sodium a day, which is 5 g of salt or just under a teaspoon. The NHS limit is 6 g of salt. The American Heart Association sets 2,300 mg of sodium as its ceiling and 1,500 mg as the ideal for most adults.
Most people are well over. The global average is about 4,300 mg of sodium a day, more than double the WHO figure. Around three quarters of the salt in a UK diet comes from packaged and everyday foods such as bread, processed meat, sauces and snacks, so what you buy matters more than what you sprinkle.
What cutting back does
A Cochrane review of 34 trials found that reducing salt by about 4.4 g a day for four weeks or more lowered blood pressure by an average of 4.2/2.1 mmHg. The fall was larger in people with high blood pressure (5.4/2.8) than in those without (2.4/1.0). The American Heart Association says that for most people, cutting 1,000 mg of sodium a day can improve blood pressure.
Cooking with less salt
Check the labels on stock, soy sauce, tinned foods, cured meat, cheese and bread, and choose reduced-salt versions where the difference is large. Build flavour with acid, herbs, spices, garlic and browning before reaching for salt, and taste before you season. Measuring salt with a spoon, at least for a while, shows how much you really use.
On this site, sodium per serving is calculated from the ingredients. Use the sodium filter in the recipe search to set a ceiling per meal: three meals at 600 mg leave room for snacks within the WHO limit. Ingredients written as “to taste” are not counted, so measure what you add.
Worth knowing
- If you have kidney or heart disease or take medication for blood pressure, ask your clinician what sodium target is right for you before making big changes. Eating less salt is not a substitute for treatment.
- Potassium-based salt substitutes are not safe for everyone, particularly people with kidney disease or on some blood pressure medicines. Check before using them.
- People who lose a lot of sodium in sweat, such as endurance athletes and people working in heat, may need more than the lowest targets.
Common questions
What is the difference between salt and sodium?
Salt is sodium chloride. Sodium is the part linked to blood pressure and the figure shown on our recipes. To convert, multiply sodium by 2.5: 2,000 mg of sodium is 5 g of salt.
What counts as low sodium on a label?
On US labels, “low sodium” means 140 mg or less per serving. “Reduced sodium” only means at least 25% less than the usual product, which can still be a lot.
Sources
General information, not medical or dietary advice. Speak to a doctor or registered dietitian about your own situation.
