Dietary Salt for Beginners: Where to Start

Sodium chloride, most of which reaches the UK diet already added to manufactured food.

Key takeaways

• UK adult maximum: 6g a day, about a level teaspoon
• WHO recommendation: less than 5g a day
• Most useful single change: Compare brands of bread, sauce and stock; the range between them is large.
• Commonest mistake: Focusing on the salt cellar while ignoring the shopping basket.
• See a doctor if any of the signs under "When to speak to a doctor" below apply to you.

Why bother

Higher intake raises blood pressure, and blood pressure is among the strongest modifiable risk factors for stroke and heart disease.

Start here

Just these two to begin with. The rest can wait.

• Compare brands of bread, sauce and stock; the range between them is large
• Add acid, umami and toasted spice where you would have added salt

Then add these

Once the basics are in place, add these.

• Salt at the end of cooking, where it is tasted
• Reduce gradually, since taste preference adapts over a few weeks

The numbers, in one place

Common early mistakes

• Focusing on the salt cellar while ignoring the shopping basket
• Potassium-based substitutes without advice if you have kidney disease or heart failure
• Assuming sea salt or pink salt is meaningfully lower in sodium

Where to go next

• Dietary Salt in Five Minutes
• The Evidence on Dietary Salt, Without the Hype
• Dietary Salt — the reference entry
• Added Sugar: What the Evidence Actually Says
• Saturated Fat: Sorting the Evidence From the Noise

When to speak to a doctor

Speak to your GP before using potassium-containing salt substitutes if you have kidney disease, heart failure, diabetes, or take ACE inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers or potassium-sparing diuretics, as raised potassium can be dangerous.

Where this comes from

• NHS — Salt: the facts
• World Health Organization — Sodium reduction

How this page was put together

Every figure, recommendation and warning above is taken from the guidance named in Where this comes from. Nothing on this page is inferred, summarised or generalised beyond what those bodies publish: where they give a number, it is their number, and where they are silent, so are we. Pages are rebuilt whenever the underlying record changes. Sign-off by a named clinician, where it has happened, is shown at the top of the page along with the date.

Medical disclaimer

This article is general information, not medical advice. It cannot account for your own history, medication or circumstances. Always speak to a GP, pharmacist or another qualified health professional before making changes that affect your treatment, and never delay seeking medical advice because of something you have read here. In an emergency, call 999.