Salt for Human Nutrition

Sometimes the two terms, "salt" and "sodium" are used interchangeably, but technically this is not correct. "Salt" is sodium chloride. By weight, it is 40% sodium and 60% chloride. Sodium is an essential nutrient, a mineral that the body cannot manufacture itself but which is required for life itself and good health. Because of sodium's importance to your body, several interacting mechanisms guard against under-consumption of salt and its threat to your body's nerves and muscles and interference with the sodium-potassium "pump" which adjusts intra- and extra-cellular pressures. If your salt intake varies widely, these mechanisms activate to assure that your body remains healthy, maintaining a relatively constant blood pressure. Chloride, too, is essential to good health. It preserves acid-base balance in the body, aids potassium absorption, supplies the essence of digestive stomach acid, and enhances the ability of the blood to carry carbon dioxide from respiring tissues to the lungs. Salt should be part of every family's food storage program. Salt has been a valuable weapon in our public health campaign against iodine deficiency disorders (IDD). Iodizing salt has virtually eliminated IDD in North America and many other areas, although the World Health Organization has targeted elimination of IDD globally as a top priority. Where public health authorities do not fluoridize water, adding fluoride to salt is common as in France, Switzerland and Latin America.

Years ago we thought that different societies had wide variations in salt intake. Current research shows that where salt is readily available, the vast majority of the world's population chooses to consume about 6-10 grams of salt a day. Including naturally occurring sodium in foods, people worldwide consume about 3,500 milligrams (mg) of sodium, Americans included. Some remote primitive peoples like the Yanamamo Indians of the Brazilian jungle who lack ready access to dietary sodium do have almost unbelievably small levels of sodium intake–far below that judged by the National Academy of Sciences to be safe for Americans. But for the rest of the world, our average intakes are typical. The National Academy of Sciences recommends that Americans consume a minimum of 500 mg/day of sodium. The European Union Population Reference Intake for males aged 18 years (an "acceptable range of intakes") is 575-3500 mg. Nutrition is important to good health. Salt is part of a healthy diet, a fact increasingly recognized by the public.

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