Everyone needs a bit of salt in their diets. Salt helps control the amount of fluid our bodies retain and aids the functioning of muscle and nerves. But on average adults in the UK consume 8.1g of salt each day, that’s a third more than the recommended 6g!

This week it’s the 18^th National Salt Awareness Week (20^th-26^th March 2017). This year’s theme, Salt: The Forgotten Killer, aims to remind people of the dangers of too much salt in your diet.

Salt raises your blood pressure leading to increased risk of strokes, and heart failure, and a high salt intake has also been linked to a greater risk of stomach cancer and osteoporosis.

According to Consensus Action on Salt and Health (CASH), 75 per cent of the salt we eat is hidden in the food we buy and not necessarily food that tastes salty. Sweet foods like ice-cream, cake and biscuits can also contain salt.

So if you want to reduce the amount of salt in your diet, how should you go about it? The NHS Livewell site has these handy tips:

Look out for the nutrition labels on foods at the supermarket – some even have the easy-to-read traffic light system with the green indicating less than 0.30g per 100g, amber indicating less than 1.5g per 100g and red means there’s more than 1.5g per 100g.

Don’t add salt when you’re cooking at home. It may sound obvious but this needn’t mean bland-tasting food. Adding alternatives such as black pepper, garlic or chilli can all add flavour to food without increasing salt content.

Also, when eating out, lower-salt choices might include: Pizza with chicken or vegetable options rather than pepperoni or ham. Pasta dishes with tomato rather than cheese sauce. Sandwiches with vegetable or chicken fillings instead of ham or cheese.

CASH has produced this useful pfd to help you identify high-salt foods:

http://www.actiononsalt.org.uk/resources/ordering/193556.pdf

So lowering your salt intake may take a change in habits but the health benefits have got to be worth it.

And did we mention, our Bannisters’ Farm Ready Baked Potatoes and Littl’uns Small Baked Potatoes have no added salt? With none of our products containing a high (or “red”) level of salt. You can find out more about the health benefits of potatoes (especially baked potatoes) in this blog.