Salt

What is salt?

The chemical name for salt is sodium chloride and is a common seasoning and preservative used in the diet. Sodium helps to control the balance of water in the body and helps keep our nerves and muscles working properly; eaten in the correct amounts it can also help to maintain a healthy blood pressure. However, too much salt can increase the volume of body fluids raising blood pressure leading to hypertension, heart disease, fluid retention, stroke and other illnesses.

Everyone needs a little bit of salt to help body cells absorb nutrients but many of us eat far more than we need. Around three quarters of the salt we eat is already in the food we buy and is mostly in processed foods.

Salt Recommendations

People in the UK consume about 9.5g salt a day but to minimise the risk of heart disease and hypertension, we should not be eating more than 6g salt a day which is around one full tablespoon. Salt intakes should be a lot lower for children and the amount recommended depends on their age:

Foods High in Salt

Certain foods contain high levels of salt and should be consumed in smaller amounts if you are trying to cut down on your daily salt intake, these include:

• Bacon


• Cheese


• Olives


• Pickles


• Smoked meat and fish


• Anchovies


• Nuts


• Condiments like tomato ketchup, soya sauce


• Stock cubes

There is currently no evidence to suggest that gluten-freeWhen a food has less than 20 parts per million (ppm) of gluten so it is safe for people with coeliac disease to eat. products contain any more salt than glutenA protein that is found in the cereals wheat, barley and rye. containing varieties. If you are trying to cut down on salt, it is a good idea to check the labelling on processed foods and choose varieties containing the least amount of salt.

Labelling

Salt is often added to processed foods and so it is easy to lose track of how much you are eating. It is a good idea to read the nutritional information on food labels where you can find how much salt the product contains per 100g serving. As a basic guide:

Manufacturers will sometimes only give the figure for sodium but there is a simple method to work out how much salt is present:

Salt = sodium x 2.5

The European Union has recently agreed that manufacturers must always spell out on their nutritional information how much salt is in a product, however it may take up to five years for this change to take effect.

Manufacturers often uses a traffic light system to show whether a food is low, medium or high in salt with red indicating a high salt level and green indicating a low salt level.

Top Tips to Decrease Salt Intake

There are simple changes that you can make to your diet that can help to cut down on salt intake and there are other ways to add flavour without using salt:

• Reduce the amount of salt when cooking to flavour foods; instead use ingredients like herbs, spices, pepper, garlic or lemon juice.


• Taste foods first before automatically adding salt to your meal.


• Buy tinned foods like tinned vegetables and baked beans with no added salt.


• Check the labels on processed foods and try to pick ones containing less salt.


• Marinate meat and fish with herbs and spices before cooking to give them more flavour.


• Roast vegetables to bring out their flavour.


• Make your own stock instead of buying granules or cubes, and then you can add salt to taste.