'That's too much salt!' Are you tired of hearing you're eating too much of the white stuff...

Salt has become the latest hot topic after Professor Luke O’Neill’s recent interview, discussing how in Uruguay huge steps have been taken to reduce salt consumption.

This includes providing tax incentives to restaurants who remove the salt cellars from the tables and provide low salt options on their menus.

This may leave you asking why are they using such a radical approach and is salt really that bad?

Here nutritionist Laurann O’Reilly and owner of Nutrition By Laurann guides us through everything you need to know about salt and her top tips on how to reduce the salt content in your diet.

Do we need salt in our diets?
- Yes we need a small amount of salt in our diet for our nerves to send messages, our muscles to contract and for water balance.
- Often we don’t need to add additional salt as many of our foods contain salt.

How much salt do we need?
- The Irish Heart foundation give the following salt intake guidelines

Child salt take recommendations
- Up To 1 Year: Less than 1g/day
- 1-3 Years: Less than 2g/day
- 4-6 Years: Less than 3g/day
- 7-10 Years: Less than 5g/day
- 11+ Years: Less than 6g/day

Adult salt recommendation
- Approximately 6 g/day (just over a teaspoon)

Note: Recent research has found that our current sale intake in Ireland is closer to 10g/day

Why do we need to regulate our salt intake?
- Whilst we do need some salt in our diets excess salt can result in negative health consequences such as increasing our risk of heart conditions (high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke), calcium losses which can impact our bone health and increase our risk of osteoporosis, an increase risk of kidney disease and stomach cancer (Irish Heart Foundation).

Why do we use salt?
- Traditionally salt has been used for a preservative before the use of fridges. However, we have continued to keep adding it to food as a flavour enhancer as well as a binder and stabiliser in food manufacture so it’s commonly found in processed and long life foods.

How to interpret on labels
Safefood give the following guidance recommend always choosing low or reduced salt options
Low Salt is not greater than 0.3g/100g
High Salt is greater than 1.5g/100g

Examples of salt contents of food
- Unnamed White Sliced Pan: 0.7g/100g
- Unnamed Slim Breads: 1g/100g
- Unnamed Breaded Cod: 1g/100g
-Unnamed Instant Noodles (pot): 2.9g/100g
-Unnamed Readymade/Microwavable Lasagne: 1.79g/100g
-Unnamed Readymade/Microwavable Spaghetti Bolognese: 2.08g/100g
-Unnamed Ready Made/Microwavable Beef Dinner: 1.66g/100g
-Unnamed Smoked Salmon: 2.4g/100g
-Unnamed Tinned Soup: 1.6g/100g

High salt foods to avoid
- Processed foods: Such as ready/microwavable meals, some tinned/packet foods, salty snacks (such as salted peanuts or salted crackers), some long shelf life foods (the longer the shelf like the more likely it’s got salt, preservatives and additives)
- Take away/fast foods
- Some Sauces (opt for a low salt/low sodium option)
- Cured/processed meats

Top tips for reducing your salt intake
- Opt for low salt/reduced sodium options
- Remove the salt cellar from the table – this helps to break the habit of adding salt to our foods without tasting it.
- Avoid the high salt foods listed above
- Use a combination of black pepper, herbs and spices when cooking to add flavour
- If using a small amount of salt in cooking, coarse salt (granules) are healthier than fine salt.