When it comes to seasoning food, there's no shortage of salt options.
But when it comes to health, it doesn't matter if it was mined in Kansas, solar-evaporated from the Mediterranean Sea or hand-harvested in French marshes. Salt is salt, the experts say, and it's bad for your health. Chances are you're eating way too much of it.
If you think setting down the shaker will make a difference, take that advice with a grain of salt. Most salt comes from processed foods and restaurants.
Most people need less than a quarter-teaspoon a day of salt. But many foods exceed that amount per serving. Most Americans consume as much as 2 teaspoons of salt a day, far above the recommended half-teaspoon for healthy adults, according to the Institute of Medicine.
That's a serious problem. Though the mechanism behind it isn't fully understood, high-salt diets can cause high blood pressure, a risk factor for heart and kidney disease and stroke.
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"This is the equivalent of a jumbo jet with 400 people on it crashing every day," says Dr. Stephen Havas, vice president of public health for the American Medical Association. He says if Americans cut their salt use in half, 150,000 lives a year could be saved.
Don't think that having normal blood pressure exempts you. Because blood pressure naturally rises with age, people become increasingly susceptible to salt's ill effects. Many researchers also think salt has a cumulative effect.
The good news is that much of the damage is reversible simply by cutting back on salt.
Health officials aren't concerned about the dash in your pasta cooking water or the sprinkle on your scrambled eggs. Salt added at the table or during cooking accounts for less than a quarter of the sodium in the American diet.
It's processed and restaurant foods that are the problem.
A McDonald's Quarter Pounder with Cheese contains nearly half a teaspoon of salt, while two slices of Pizza Hut Meat Lover's Stuffed Crust pizza has more than a teaspoon. Even most low-sodium canned soups contain nearly a quarter teaspoon.
And taste isn't always a good indicator. A serving of Cheerios has more salt than a serving of Ruffles potato chips.
Because processed and restaurant foods dominate the American diet, it can be hard to cut back. Health officials think change hinges more on the food industry than the consumer.
"You don't have to ask people to do anything," says Dr. Norman Kaplan, a blood pressure expert at University of Texas Southwest Medical Center in Dallas, "if you could get the food processors to do it."
The American Medical Association in June urged the government to require labeling of high-salt foods. The group also asked the government to revoke salt's status as safe.
The food industry, meanwhile, has worked to find a low-sodium salt alternative, and many companies have introduced lower-sodium products, or quietly lowered the salt in existing foods.
