The recommended amount is about 3 to 4 grams. I don’t have any dope* scales so how much is 3.5 grams of salt? A teaspoon? Half?
*dope as in drugs, not as in straight.
It’s about a pinch, certainly less than half a teaspoon.
Is that a metric or Imperial pinch?
Seriously, is there a slightly more systematic way of measuring 3.5 grams of salt without resorting to lab scales?
According to the Salt Institute, salt has a density of of 6,162 mg/US tsp. So an RDA of 3-4 grams is 1/2 to 3/4 of a teaspoon of salt. Not much, really.
But before you get all in a huff that you’re getting too much salt, you can get several times that amount in a day and be perfectly fine. Just get in enough water. The RDA is really the min. your body needs, but assuming you stay well hydrated, getting more isn 't going to be bad, as long as you’re not near a lethal dose. The salt institue says the TDLo for salt is around 12,000 mg/kg. That’s 12 grams of salt per kilogram you weigh. That’s a god damn lot of salt, so eat up.
The reason the salt guidelines is much lower than the lethal dose, however is because high salt intake is linked to cardiovascular disease and hypertension.
So sure, eat as much salt as you want, but only if you don’t care about the state of your arteries!
Just be aware that doesn’t mean you can add 1/2-3/4 tsp of salt to your food each day, since just about everything has a significant amount of salt added to it. Just checking through some of the goods in my cupboard, I see 1/2 c. of canned beans providing 4-6% of your salt RDA, 1/2 c. of refried beans being 20%, a quarter-cup of canned salmon or tuna being 7-10%. One packet of instant oatmeal, anywhere from 7-11%. Last night while grocery shopping, I found a packaged mushroom pasta mix that gives just over half of your salt RDA in a single serving.
Now think about how many times you don’t stick to less than a half-can of tuna/salmon, or you add two packets of oatmeal to a bowl instead of one of those tiny packets, or you get second helpings of a bean dish, or maybe that pasta. It’s very easy to get many times your RDA without even trying that hard.
As far as I know, high intake of salt aggravates existing cardiovascular disease and/or hypertension, but it is not known to cause those conditions.
According to the Food & Nutrition Board in the US, there is no RDA for Sodium. The value of 1.2-1.5g is an AI (Adequate Intake), which is somewhere a little above the minimum needed without causing problems for most of the population.
As already said, you probably also don’t need much more than that, either.
Sorry, forget the rest of my point. In addition to the RDA or AI, there is often an upper limit, which is considered the maximum level before you start having medical problems. The US UL for Sodium is 2.3 g for adults, a little less than 1 tsp of salt.
(Also, the difference between RDA and AI is simply that AI is a ‘best guess’ instead of based on scientific data).
That’s what I had always heard as well. But *irishgirl is the doctor here, so I will assume she knows more than me.
I was also under the impression that current medical thinking is that some people are sensitive to sodium, and in those people, excess salt can cause hypertension and other bad circulatory things. But non-sensitive people can go to a salt lick every day if they want (subject to having enough fresh water to drink).
Am I mistaken?
Here’s the info from my package of Jewel Iodized Salt.
Serving size: 1/4 tsp (1.5 g)
Sodium: 590 mg - 25% of “% Daily Value”
So according to this package, 100% of “% Daily Value” would be 1 teaspoon or 6 grams, and 3.5 grams would be 7/12 tsp.