Table salt is sodium chloride: it is the sodium which is important for your blood pressure, not the chloride. High blood pressure is unknown among those peoples of the world which normal diet contains about 20 times less sodium than a normal Western diet, and even very high blood pressure can be controlled by reducing sodium intake to this level. The diet required for this consists entirely of rice, fruit, and vegetable and would be intolerable to most people.
The usual daily diet contains much more salt than anyone needs, it certainly does no harm to reduce sodium intake by not adding salt to cooked meals, and by reducing or avoiding high sodium processed foods (crisps, sausages, sauces, tinned meats and beans and ‘convenience’ food generally), Chinese take-away (which contain huge quantities of sodium glutamate) and strong cheeses. Salt can be found in the most unexpected foods for example, both milk and bread contain salt in amounts which would surprise most people.There is no convincing evidence that the roughly one third reductions in sodium intake you can achieve by these dietary changes is an effective alternative to drug treatment for severe high blood pressure. Reducing fat in your diet by about a quarter reduces the potential complications of high blood pressure much more effectively than reducing your salt intake by about half. Most people find it difficult to reduce fat and salt at the same time, and fat reduction deserved a higher priority (especially as cutting down in fats will help you lose weight).
However, people whose blood pressure is high enough for them to need to take drugs for it may manage on lower dosage of their tablets if they reduce their sodium intake, and very heavy salt eaters should try to cut down.
Salt, Sodium and High Blood Pressure
