Table of Contents
Updates
This post was first published in 2023 as part of a longer post. It has been edited to focus on hypertension and salt, and republished in 2025
Resources
Wikipedia
Wikipedia entries provide information on the science and medical views:
Salt and sodium:
- Salt; Sodium Chloride – chemistry of salt, more history and other uses;
- Health effects of salt; Sodium in biology.
Governments
USA
- US Food and Drug Administation (FDA) Guidance on salt.
- US Department of Agriculture (USDA) 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines.
The US Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service’s FoodData Central (“USDA FDC”) can search 5 data sets. It may be necessary to search in each set. The American government collects or tests samples for the FNDDS Survey Foods data set, but not the others. The government requires tests from accredited services at a manufacturer or distributor’s expense in most instances.
Other countries, including Canada, have data sets on products offered for sale in those countries. The data comes from manufacturers or hired services. Government or independent testing is limited.
The USDA FDC data sets are:
- Foundation Foods,
- Standard Reference Legacy Foods,
- Human Research Center Food and Nutrient database for Dietary Studies (“FNDDS Survey Foods”),
- Branded Foods,
- Experimental Foods.
Canada Department of Heath (Health Canada):
- Canada Food Guide,
- Dietary Guidelines,
- Guidance on sodium,
- Sodium detector, and
- information on sodium content of common processed foods.
Advocacy, Charities
The American Heart Association (AHA),
- Get the Scoop on Sodium and Salt – web page;
- Understanding Blood Pressure Readings – web page;
- published medical scientific journal Hypertension.
- diet guides and cookbooks. The AHA sells a Low-Salt Cookbook, first published in 1990. The 2011 4th edition is the most modern, and is currently for sale on the internet at the AHA website;
Hypertension Canada
Hypertension
Defined
Hypertension … is a long-term medical condition in which the blood pressure in the arteries is persistently elevated. High blood pressure usually does not cause symptoms. Long-term high blood pressure, however, is a major risk factor for stroke, coronary artery disease, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, peripheral arterial disease, vision loss, chronic kidney disease, and dementia. Hypertension is a major cause of premature death worldwide.
High blood pressure is classified as primary (essential) hypertension or secondary hypertension. About 90–95% of cases are primary, defined as high blood pressure due to nonspecific lifestyle and genetic factors. Lifestyle factors that increase the risk include excess salt in the diet, excess body weight, smoking, and alcohol use. The remaining 5–10% of cases are categorized as secondary high blood pressure, defined as high blood pressure due to an identifiable cause, such as chronic kidney disease, narrowing of the kidney arteries, an endocrine disorder, or the use of birth control pills.
Blood pressure is classified by two measurements, the systolic and diastolic pressures, which are the maximum and minimum pressures, respectively. For most adults, normal blood pressure at rest is within the range of 100–130 millimeters mercury (mmHg) systolic and 60–80 mmHg diastolic. For most adults, high blood pressure is present if the resting blood pressure is persistently at or above 130/80 or 140/90 mmHg. … Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring over a 24-hour period appears more accurate than office-based blood pressure measurement.
Wikipedia, September 2022, Hypertension
Treatment
Drugs vs Lifestyle
Physicians in most places diagnose hypertension on the basis of blood pressure readings, and treat it by prescribing anti-hypertensive medication and testing patients periodically. A few countries cover the cost of prescribed medications under health insurance or drug cost insurance.
Lifestyle changes and medications can lower blood pressure and decrease the risk of health complications. Lifestyle changes include weight loss, physical exercise, decreased salt intake, reducing alcohol intake, and a healthy diet. If lifestyle changes are not sufficient, then blood pressure medications are used. Up to three medications taken concurrently can control blood pressure in 90% of people. The treatment of moderately high arterial blood pressure (defined as >160/100 mmHg) with medications is associated with an improved life expectancy. The effect of treatment of blood pressure between 130/80 mmHg and 160/100 mmHg is less clear …
….
The first line of treatment for hypertension is lifestyle changes, including dietary changes, physical exercise, and weight loss. Though these have all been recommended in scientific advisories, a Cochrane systematic review found no evidence for effects of weight loss diets on death, long-term complications or adverse events in persons with hypertension.The review did find a decrease in body weight and blood pressure.Their potential effectiveness is similar to and at times exceeds a single medication. If hypertension is high enough to justify immediate use of medications, lifestyle changes are still recommended in conjunction with medication.
Dietary changes shown to reduce blood pressure include diets with low sodium, the DASH diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension), and plant-based diets. … There is evidence from randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials that Hibiscus tea consumption significantly reduces systolic blood pressure (-4.71 mmHg, 95% CI [-7.87, -1.55]) and diastolic blood pressure (-4.08 mmHg, 95% CI [-6.48, -1.67]). Beetroot juice consumption also significantly lowers the blood pressure of people with high blood pressure
Increasing dietary potassium has a potential benefit for lowering the risk of hypertension. The 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) stated that potassium is one of the shortfall nutrients which is under-consumed in the United States. However, people who take certain antihypertensive medications (such as ACE-inhibitors or ARBs) should not take potassium supplements or potassium-enriched salts due to the risk of high levels of potassium.
Wikipedia, September 2022, Hypertension
Doctors often prescribe medications to reduce blood pressure to levels under 140/90. Medical care is often dedicated to managing medications and adverse side-effects. The medications have adverse side-effects. ACE inhibitors (e.g.), can cause persistent dry coughing, among other things. Calcium channel blockers (e.g. Amlodypine) often cause peripheral edema.
Diet
Some governments and advocacy groups (e.g. the AHA) have promoted the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (“DASH”), eating plan. In Canada, Heart&Stoke has a paper on its web site.
Alcohol
In the short run, drinking alcohol increases blood pressure for a short period after consumption. One drink will raise blood pressure for about two hours. Long term regular drinking contributes to hypertension, The causation is still under discussion. A 2014 paper says:
… the mechanism through which alcohol raises blood pressure remains elusive. Several possible mechanisms have been proposed such as an imbalance of the central nervous system, impairment of the baroreceptors, enhanced sympathetic activity, stimulation of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, increased cortisol levels, increased vascular reactivity due to increase in intracellular calcium levels, stimulation of the endothelium to release vasoconstrictors and loss of relaxation due to inflammation and oxidative injury of the endothelium leading to inhibition of endothelium-dependent nitric oxide production. Loss of relaxation due to inflammation and oxidative injury of the endothelium by angiotensin II leading to inhibition of endothelium-dependent nitric oxide production is the major contributors of the alcohol-induced hypertension. For the prevention of alcohol-induced hypertension is to reduce the amount of alcohol intake. Physical conditioning/exercise training is one of the most important strategies to prevent/treat chronic alcohol-induced hypertension on physiological basis. The efficacious pharmacologic treatment includes the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors or angiotensin II type 1 receptor blockers (ARBs) which have antioxidant activity and calcium channel blockers.
Abstract, Husain, Ansari, Ferder; Alcohol-induced hypertension: Mechanism and prevention 6 World J. Cardiol. 245 (2014)
Abstention by long term regular drinkers can reduce blood pressure readings during the period of absention. Studies:
- Alcohol consumption and hypertension, (1987)
- Alcohol consumption and hypertension, (1993)
- Lifestyle modifications to prevent and control hypertension. 3. Recommendations on alcohol consumption. Canadian Hypertension Society, Canadian Coalition for High Blood Pressure Prevention and Control, Laboratory Centre for Disease Control at Health Canada, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada (1999)
- The effect of a reduction in alcohol consumption on blood pressure: a systematic review and meta-analysis (2017)
The American Heart Association says that limiting alcohol consumption to less than two drinks a day is advised.
Caffeine
Caffeine can elevate blood pressure temporarily, which will affect blood pressure readings. It is not discussed as a significant lifestyle or dietary factor causing hypertension.
Sodium
Salt
Salt is found as a crystalline solid, or in solution in water. Salt can be mined from mineral deposits, or extracted from seawater by evaporation. Salt was used to preserve, store and prepare food for centuries.
Most salt for cooking is processed to standard sized crystals sold as table salt. It is the standard presentation of the salt sold in grocery stores for household use in cooking and baking. The crystals are small enough to fit the holes in a salt shaker, and dissolve in water including in the amounts used to mix bread dough in industrial bakeries. Table salt is treated with anti-caking agents. Depending on manufacturer and brand, it may be treated with or without iodine and other chemicals.
Kosher salt is a table salt with slightly larger crystals, and normally not treated with chemicals other than anti-caking ingredients. Sea salt may have crystals of varying sizes, some of which may not dissolve and distribute uniformly during cooking and baking.
Humans became habituated to salt. During the industrialization of food processing, the food industry used salt to mask the changes to the taste of food that was processed in canneries, and began to use salt as flavour enhancer to increase the sales of processed foods.
It was not believed to be harmful until medical research was conducted in the 20th century.
Chemistry, Biology
Salt, at the atomic/molecular level has one atom of sodium (symbol Na) bonded to and one atom of chlorine (symbol Cl), and is chemically described as (NaCL) sodium chloride. Salt crystals dissolve in water. NaCl can be separated by electrolysis. Salt molecules consumed by living organisms are used in metabolism in extracellular fluid and interstitial fluid.
Sodium is an element, an alkaline earth metal in Group 1, in the periodic table. In living organisms, salt is separated into sodium cations (positively charged ions) and chlorine anions. Before industrial food processing manufactured other products made with sodium, humans consumed animals and plants, or salt, to acquire sodium. Most plants consume little salt, but animals, including humans, require sodium. Sodium is a vital nutrient:
Sodium ions play a diverse and important role in many physiological processes, acting to regulate blood volume, blood pressure, osmotic equilibrium and pH.
Wikipedia, Sodium in Biology, September 2022
Sodium is the primary cation in extracellular fluids in animals and humans. Sodium ions pass into cellular fluid by the enzyme in the cell walls known as the sodium-potassium pump. I have not found an explanation for whether or how the sodium ions are separated from the chlorine or other anions/atoms. Humans (and other animals) have taste receptors that detect sodium ions or salt. These receptors also detect the ions of other alkali metals as salty. The sense of taste for salt is not calibrated. Humans can detect that a mouthful of food contains salt but cannot tell how much sodium they consume.
The adequate intake for sodium is 1,200 to 1,500 milligrams per day. On average, people in the United States consume 3,400 milligrams per day, an amount that promotes hypertension. Salt contains about 39.3% sodium by mass; the safe upper limit for sodium is under 1 teaspoon per day. 1 tsp of table salt weighs 5.7 grams, and contains 2,240 mg. of sodium. The food industry resists reducing the use of sodium in the preparation of packaged foods and restaurant meals. It markets some salty items as traditional foods. Its lobbyists and lawyers disputes the harms of salt. The food industry argues that
- consumers make informed decisions (the same argument tobacco companies and drug companies used to defend their profit from the sale of addictive products), and
- manufacturers have the right to use salt to sell products profitably.
Manufacturers are required to disclose facts to the USDA in the USA, and to disclose facts to persons purchasing packaged foods with a label on the package headed “Nutrition Facts”. Sodium is listed in the Food/Nutrition facts labels in milligrams; (.001 or 1/1000 of a gram). Sodium is also stated in the Food/Nutrition facts labelsas a % of the national recommended daily allowance (usually the USDA RDA) in a stated amount called a serving, as defined by the manufacturer. It is usually given as a volume and often also as a weight measured in grams.
There are regulations in the USA requiring chain restaurants to disclose sodium content on menus and in some instances tag the content with health risk logo that may alert consumers. These regulations are resisted by restaurants and manufacturers, by lobbying, occasional litigation, obscurity, equivocation and evasion. The Canadian CBC Network covered sodium in restaurant food in Canada in its television/streaming program Marketplace‘s episode “Putting takeout to the test: the shocking amount of sodium in some restaurant meals” (Season 50, Episode aired January 6, 2023) – Text for internet article, with link to YouTube video.
I have put sodium content of several food items in a table at the end of this post.
Salt Free Foods
Salt Substitutes
Salt is essential to the preparation of some foods.
Some mineral compounds interact with the salt sensors in the human mouth. Potassium Choride is one such compound. The food manufacturer French’s began to manufacture and distribute a product called NoSalt, now packaged as the Original Sodium Free Salt Subsitute salt. In 2017 the French’s brands were acquired by McCormick & Company. NoSalt is sold by some retail grocery chains and by some specialized internet vendors. By 2024, I was able to find a potassium chloride product called SaltFree marketed by Windsor Salt in Canadian retail. There are other salt substitute products.
Salt Free Prepared Foods
Some manufacturers have produced salt free foods and brought them to market. Some have been abandoned for unknown reasons. Some salt free processed food products are on the market.
In British Columbia, Canada, the Thrifty’s grocery stores (now part of the retail group that manages the Sobeys stores) sold a store brand of no sodium whole wheat bread. It wasn’t good, but it appeared to sell. The store stopped offering it in about 2020.
Becel (an Upfield brand) packaged a low sodium margerine spread for retail distribution and sale in Canada for several years. It disappeared from retail grocery stores on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada and everywhere Upfield did busness, as far as I can tell, in 2019. Becel’s other margerine spreads generally have about 70 mg. of sodium per 2 tsp. of margerine spread. Becel/Upfield does not post Nutrition Facts on the Web (it complies with the law and has Nutition Facts labels on its product tubs and wrappers. Becel/Upfield promotes Becel margerine spreads as healthy plant based oil products. Becel still manufactures a salt free margerine, sold in blocks. It is not spreadable.
Some zero salt products available before 2020 fell victim to supply chain problems or disappeared for retail stores during the pandemic
Salt Sensitivity
The journal Hypertension published Salt Sensitivity of Blood Pressure; A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association in Volume 68, No. 3 in September 2016 which argued for the existence of a physiological trait by which the blood pressure of some members of the population exhibits changes parallel to changes in salt intake. Physicians in most places do not diagnose salt sensitivity.
Baking
Salt used in baking yeasted or yeast-leaving bread to flavour bread and to affect the formation of gluten. It is a normal ingredient in recipes and formulas for yeasted bread, as I discuss in my post Sodium in Bread.
Baking Soda
Baking soda, also known as sodium bicarbonate is used in baking as a chemical leaving agent. It is also used as an ingredient in manufacturing baking powder. It is not uncommon for baking recipes to use both baking powder and baking soda. Baking soda has some other uses in cooking, and several other uses.
There is a sodium free baking soda substitute called Ener-G Baking Soda Substitute, manufactured by Ener-G Foods Inc., and available online.
Baking Powder
Baking powder is a chemical leavening agent used in baking, made with baking soda. There is a sodium free baking powder substitute called Featherweight, manufactured by Hain Pure Foods, and available online.
Sodium in Food Table
The table below surveys Food Facts data on product labels for several foods that I encounter in local grocery stores. I have a separate table of food products used in baking, including salt, in my post for baking ingredients.
The column headings for the sodium content table lists the items, in groups. The column headings identify the food product, and
- the Food/Nutrition Facts “serving” size, normally set by the manufacturer and details as stated by the mfr., in the Food Facts label:
- the weight or mass (in grams) of the Unit and/or
- the volume (American Tablespoons (“T”) and teaspoons (“t”) , and/or metric in milliters (“ml”)), ;
- for some items, a realistic amount (“RA”) used in a recipe;
- the sodium (“Na”) in the RA, by weight, in milligrams. If no RA is given, the Na is per serving.
In the hot sauce group, I have chosen the pepper sauces with low sodium, which use 1 teaspoon as a serving size. I have not used the heavily marketed hot sauces (e.g. Frank’s Red Hot) which may use a large serving size.
| Food | Serving | RA | Na (mg.) |
| Condiments & Spreads | |||
| Mayonnaise Hellman’s Regular | 1 T | 98 | |
| Mustard (Dijon) Maille | 1 t 5 ml | 120 | |
| Peanut Butter Island Nut Roastery (Sidney BC) | 15 g. 1 T | 0 | |
| Hot Sauce McIlhenny Tabasco | 1 t. 5 ml. | 35 | |
| Hot Sauce Hot Ones Classic | 1 t. 5 ml. | 20 | |
| Salsa (Black Bean & Corn) Fox Valley | 28 g. 2 T | 35 | |
| Salsa (Medium) FrogRanch | 32 g. 2 T | 40 | |
| Salsa (Hot) FrogRanch | 32 g. 2 T | 40 | |
| Salsa Desert Pepper (not available 2024) | 2 T 30 ml | 4 T | 160 |
| Salsa (Medium) Que Pasa | 60 g. ¼ cup (4 T) | 210 | |
| Salsa (hot) Everland Organic | 2 T 30 ml | 4 T | 260 |
| Olives, Spanish Queen (Martini) Mezzeta | 2 | 340 | |
| (cucumber) Pickles Bicks Garlic Dill Pickles “50% of the salt …” | 60 g. 1 pickle | 270 | |
| (cucumber) Pickles Bicks Sandwick Slices “tangy dill” slices “50% of the salt …” | 30 g. 2 slices | 135 | |
| “Low Sodium” Tomato Ketchup French’s | 1 T. 15 ml. | 40 | |
| Dry Beans | |||
| Cannellini (White Kidney) Everland Organic | 28 g. | 1 cup 160 g. | 14.4 |
| White Kidney Walmart “Great Value” | 35 g. ⅕ cup | 1 cup 175 g. | 0 ? |
| Romano Walmart “Great Value” | 35 g. ⅕ cup | 1 cup 175 g. | 0 ? |
| Produce (raw/fresh) | |||
| Cabbage, green USDA FoodData Central | 100 g. | 18 | |
| Tomato USDA FoodData Central | 123 g. 1 medium | 6.2 | |
| Tomato, diced USDA FoodData Central | 180 g. 1 cup | 9 | |
| Fruit & Veg, Processed | |||
| Tomatoes, Sun-dried Turkish, ready to Eat San Remo | 15 g. 3 pieces | 314 | |
| Tomatoes, Sun-dried in oil Unico | 30 g. 5 pieces | 300 | |
| Tomatoes, canned, diced; no salt added Western Family “Only Goodness” | 125 ml 1/2 cup | 10 | |
| Tomatoes, canned diced, no salt added Unico | 125 ml 1/2 cup | 5 | |
| Soup & Broth | |||
| Vegetable Broth No salt added Campbell | 250 ml 1 cup | 15 | |
| Cheese | |||
| Velveeta Process Cheez Kraft | 30 g. Cube | 450 | |
| Gouda (Dutch, sold in wedges or wheels) Several brand names | 30 g. Cube | 320 | |
| Emmental (Swiss or French, sold in blocks) Several brand & retailer names | 30 g. Cube | varies 30 to 60 | |
| Swiss, sliced Castello brand | 18 g. 1 slice | 60 | |
| Swiss, sliced Cracker Barrel brand (a Lactanis brand) | 20 g. 1 slice | 45 | |
| Beverages | |||
| Beer 0.0% Heineken lager | 355 ml 1 can | 10 | |
| Beer 0.0% Grolsch lager | 500 ml 1 can | 20 | |
| Beer 0.5% Molson Exel ale | 355 ml 1 can | 10 | |