Salt intake moderation is the key

Although we need a multitude of different minerals, salts and nutrients when it essentially comes down to salts in the body the body will break it down into sodium.

What's the difference between salt and sodium?

Salt is also known as sodium chloride - 1g of sodium is equivalent to about 2.5g of salt. It's the sodium in salt that can lead to health problems. Adults should have no more than 6g of salt a day, which is about 2.4g of sodium. And children should have even less.
On average, people are actually having about 9g of salt a day. This means we are eating about 50% more salt than we should. It's a good idea for everyone to try to cut down on the salt they are eating. To work out if a food is high in salt, check the label. High is more than 1.5g salt per 100g (or 0.6g sodium)
Low is 0.3g salt or less per 100g (or 0.1g sodium) If the amount of salt per 100g is in between these figures, then that is a medium level of salt. Remember that the amount you eat of a particular food affects how much salt you will get from it.

Looking in to salt and high mortality rate

Dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition and Public Policy at Tufts university, combined data from more than 100 prior studies regarding sodium intake in 66 countries. They estimated the impact of sodium intake on blood pressure and death due to cardiovascular disease. Here’s what they found:

Average sodium intake was nearly 4,000 mg a day
There would be 1.65 million fewer deaths per year worldwide if average sodium intake was closer to 2,000 mg a day.
40% of deaths linked to excess sodium intake occur in individuals younger than age 70.
Reducing sodium intake to recommended levels would prevent about 10% of deaths related to cardiovascular disease.
Sourced from Scottish food standard agency and HM medical news

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