Common Myths and Misconceptions
- “Food will be tasteless without salt”. If you usually choose high salt foods or add lots of salt when cooking, or at the table, you may find that food tastes bland when you first reduce the amount of salt in your eating plan. Our taste buds take only two to three weeks to adjust to a less salty on foods – you will be surprised how salty some foods begin to taste.
- “All food labels are regulated by law”. There are no legal definitions for claims such as 'reduced-sodium' on food labelling. Although the law says food-labelling claims should not be misleading, you need to read these labels with a suspicious eye and check the nutrition information panel to see how much sodium the product actually contains.
- “Only old people need to worry about how much salt they eat”. Eating too much salt can raise your blood pressure at any age. It's true that you have less chance of developing heart disease or stroke in your 20s or 30s than when you're older; but young adults with high blood pressure are at greater risk than someone of the same age with normal blood pressure.
- “Foods that are high in salt will taste salty”. Not always the case. Some foods that are high in salt e.g. biscuits, some breakfast cereals and some pickled foods may contain lots of sugar, so you don’t notice the salt – particularly if your taste buds are used to high levels of it.
- “Salt is the only ingredient in foods that I need to watch for if I want to cut back on sodium”. Salt is made up of sodium and chloride. It’s the sodium that can raise blood pressure. Some foods contain other forms of sodium, used as flavour enhancers and raising agents, such as monosodium glutamate and sodium bicarbonate, so these also contribute to your sodium intake.
- “All labels must declare their salt or sodium content”. There is no requirement for the amount of salt or sodium to be listed as part of the nutrition label. Only calories, protein and carbohydrate need to be declared. All ingredients have to be listed in descending order so any product containing sodium must include it in the ingredients list.
- “Consuming 6g salt per day must be quite hard to do”. Not so, remember that most foods contain some salt – 6g of salt is about one teaspoonful. Three to four slices of dry cured bacon contain about 5g of salt and even the same amount of reduced-salt bacon holds nearly 3g of salt.
- “You need to replace the salt you lose when you sweat in hot climates”. Since you only lose a very small amount of salt when you sweat, there is no need to eat more salt even in a very hot climate. But you do need to drink plenty of water in hot climates to help prevent dehydration.