We Brits are a salty bunch – not just in temperament, but on the plate, too. Nearly half of us don’t know how much salt we’re actually eating, and a third admit to shaking it over our meals before even tasting them. Old habits die hard, especially when it comes to flavour. But a growing chorus of doctors, dietitians and public health experts are urging us to rethink our relationship with salt – not by cutting flavour, but by changing the way we season entirely.
The stats are sobering: we’re eating around 40 per cent more salt than we should be, with the average daily intake sitting at 8.4g, well above the 6g limit. That might not sound dramatic, but it adds up – excessive sodium is one of the most significant yet preventable causes of heart disease and stroke in the UK. If we each cut just 1g of salt a day, over 4,000 lives could be saved every year.
