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Five salty facts

1) 6g of salt is not a large amount, especially when you consider that 75% of the salt we eat is already in the food we buy, such as ready meals, sandwiches, pasta sauces, soups, pizzas, and processed meats such as ham and bacon. Some brands of breakfast cereals and bread are also surprisingly high in salt. Check the label - more than 1.5g salt per 100g means it is high in salt. Choose products which are lower in salt. Eating too much salt can raise your blood pressure, which triples your risk of developing heart disease.  

2) Salty foods don’t always taste salty. Some brands of bread can contain as much salt as ready salted crisps but most people do not notice the salty taste of bread.

3) We only need to eat a very small amount of salt. Most adults currently eat about 9g of salt a day. We should aim to reduce that to no more than 6g per day. Children should eat less. 

4) Food tastes better without too much added salt. Good food should taste great – but it’s easy to miss out on all those fantastic flavours if they have been drowned in salt. So try not to add salt when you are cooking or at the table.

5) Cutting down on salt reduces blood pressure, whether or not your blood pressure is high to start with. When your blood pressure goes down, your risk of developing heart disease and stroke goes down too, whatever your age. In England, a third of people (31.7% of men and 29.5% of women) currently have high blood pressure.

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