You may have noticed that there is a campaign underway to get Americans to drop their salt intake. This has included discussion of measures as radical as creating a legal limit on salt (sodium) in processed food. Although there is a lot that is good about this, it can also create confusion. I have had patients suffer serious consequences from their attempt to follow public health advice about avoiding added salt.
Here is the problem. Processed food is packed with salt. Way too much in there for sure. People who eat the way humans should eat, avoiding all that processed food, do not consume so much salt. You are getting the idea now. When those very health conscious people, eating real, non-processed food, obediently drop their table salt, they learn why salt is an essential for humans and collecting it so much a part of human culture. Remember even Sam wanted it for his cooking kit in the Lord of the Rings. Orcs, trolls, evil wizards, fine; but not without salt.
So, if you eat much in the way of processed food knock off the salt, or better still knock off the processed food. If you don’t eat much processed food and don’t have high blood pressure, don’t worry about it. Some of us actually need to eat salty food to keep our blood pressure high enough.