Too Much, Too Little Sodium Chloride Bad for your Health: Salty Solutions

First you were told you can't eat too much salt. Now find out, you can't eat too little salt. And yes. While Cheerios may lower your cholesterol, it may also make some erroneous claims about decreasing the risk of colon and stomach cancers. (Thanks, General Mills.) 

In other words, whatever controversial food or spice you're feasting on, a recent study shows that hitting the sweet spot of this or that product may be critical to overall well-being. And for Sodium Chloride consumption, in particular, (aka salt) you've simply got to eat between 2,645 and 4,945 mg of the stuff per day. (Despite the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines that you consume less than 2,300 mg per day or one teaspoon, particularly if you're under 50.)

For the study, researchers from Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark conducted a meta-analysis that combined the results of 25 individual studies on health risks associated with sodium intake, assessing 274,683 people.

"Our results are in line with the IOM's concern that lower levels could produce harm," said Niels Graudal, one of the researchers from the Institute of Medicine, via a press release. "And they provide a concrete basis for revising the recommended range in the best interest of public health. The good news is that around 95 percent of the global population already consumes within the range we've found to generate the least instances of mortality and cardiovascular disease."

And though these findings shake the recommended guidelines, there's a silver lining in the briny argument.

"The good news," he said in a news release, "is that around 95% of the global population already consumes within the range we've found to generate the least instances of mortality and cardiovascular disease."

Well doesn't that beat all? Na.

More information regarding the findings can be seen via the American Journal of Hypertension.