Lesser salt, better well-being

"We found there were no adverse effects with lower amounts of sodium and benefits continued to be seen at the lowest sodium levels," she says. The findings match up with most evidence available.

"People should realize - and it may be difficult to do with all of the conflicting information in the press - that quality differs from study to study," Cook says. "When you get down to the details, some studies are more reliable than others."

The average American still eats about 3,400 mg of salt per day - about one-and-a-half teaspoons - despite public health awareness efforts.

Main food culprits containing high sodium include bread, cured meat, pizza, poultry, soup, cheese and snacks, wrote Lyn Steffen of the University of Minnesota School of Public Health in Minneapolis in an editorial that accompanied the new study.

On the nutritional facts panel on food packaging, if the sodium amount per serving is 5 percent daily value, then that is a low-sodium product, Steffen says. Products with 20 percent daily value are high-sodium.

Even though modern lifestyles are busy, Graham MacGregor of Queen Mary University and chairman of the World Action on Salt and Health lobby group, suggests a solution: "If you cook fresh vegetables, potatoes, pasta and rice with fresh meat or fish, make more than you can consume, you can then put portions in the freezer and use this on different occasions so that the food can be instantly ready."

In restaurants, the challenge to eat less salt can be greater.

"You can request that no salt be added," Cook says. "If you suddenly cut all sodium from your meals, then things will taste bland," Cook says. "So it's important to lower sodium gradually and get accustomed to lower amounts of salt."

As the body adjusts to lower sodium levels, then foods with high sodium may be less appealing, she says.

Reuters