salt

January 2, 2014

Changing sodium to salt

We are told to cut down on salt but sodium is listed on food labels so how do we convert?

To reduce risk of high blood pressure need to limit to 6g of salt a day.

High salt >1.5g per 100g

Low salt < 0.3g per 100g

Watch out for baking powder!

Age Salt intake
1-3 years 2g
4-6 years 3g
7-10 years 5g
11 years and over 6g

Sodium to salt

To convert sodium (mg)  to salt (g), multiply the sodium figure in milligrams (mg) by 2.5 and then divide by 1,000.

So: millgrams of sodium X 2.5 = milligrams of salt ÷ 1,000 = grams of salt

500 mg sodium x 2.5 / 1000 = 1.25 grams salt

In reverse

grams of salt x 1000 /2.5 = mg of sodium

1.25 grams salt x 1000 /2.5 = 500 mg sodium or 0.5 g sodium

Eating too much salt increases your risk of developing high blood pressure which is a major risk factor for heart disease.

Too much salt is harmful to health

Too much salt is harmful to health

 News Flash – Food labelling is changing

By December 2014 all food labels will only list salt -sodium will not be listed. This will make it much easier for you to see how much salt each product contains. So we must change the Nutrition Program to fit in with this.

 Choose lower salt options using the following guidelines on food labels:

A food high in salt has more than 1.5g salt per 100g (or 0.6g sodium).

August 6, 2012

What is the difference between salt and sodium?

Salt is also known as sodium chloride – 1g of sodium is equivalent to about 2.5g of salt. It’s the sodium in salt that can lead to health problems.

Adults should have no more than 6g of salt a day, which is about 2.4g of sodium. And children should have even less.

On average, people are actually having about 9g of salt a day. This means we are eating about 50% more salt than we should.

It’s a good idea for everyone to try to cut down on the salt they are eating. To work out if a food is high in salt, check the label.

High is more than 1.5g salt per 100g (or 0.6g sodium)
Low is 0.3g salt or less per 100g (or 0.1g sodium)

If the amount of salt per 100g is in between these figures, then that is a medium level of salt.

Remember that the amount you eat of a particular food affects how much salt you will get from it.