Salt is contained in a lot of products. Got salted butter? Smear it on bread. Guess which ingredient is used in bread. Correct: salt. Maybe you put some cold cuts on it. They’ve got a lot of salt. What about cheese? Salt again. Now you move on to your coffee. You put dairy milk in it: salt. Lunch? Probably a lot of salt. Dinner? Needless to say. If you snack some chips, well, obviously it’s a shitload of salt.
Salt is everywhere. Especially in today’s food industry. Having salt is not necessarily bad for one’s health – in fact, we do need salt for our body to function – but as usual it’s the amount that matters.
And according to several dietary authorities worldwide, most people eat too much salt.
WHO:
The global mean intake of adults is 4310 mg/day sodium (equivalent to 10.78 g/day salt) (1). This is more than double the World Health Organization recommendation for adults of less than 2000 mg/day sodium (equivalent to < 5 g/day salt). www.who.int/news-room/…/salt-reduction
FDA (USA):
Americans consume on average 3,400 milligrams (mg) of sodium per day—nearly 50%more than the 2,300 mg limit recommended by federal guidelines for people 14 years and older. Recommended limits for children 13 and younger are even lower. www.fda.gov/food/…/sodium-reduction
Overview in EU:
International health-related organisations have issued recommendations to limit salt intake to no more than 5 or 6 g per day (see Table 3A). In the EU, most national recommendations that quantify salt intake recommend the same. […]
In the majority of European countries, the range of intake is 7 to 12 grams of salt per day …ec.europa.eu/…/dietary-saltsodium_en
Salt is one of those substances which have large effects even in low doses. Therefore, being above the recommended intake on average increases risks of suffering mainly from:
So, if you’re interested in your health, try to get an overview on how much salt you consume on average. And if it’s above the recommended intake (which is usually the case), consider whether you really really can not live without salted butter or try to cut down on salt with other meals. And probably, taking the shaker off the table won’t be enough.