Food salt & health

Salt, sodium choride, is ubiquitous in foods and consumed in relatively constant amounts in our diets; both sodium and chloride are essential to our health and development. Most of our dietary sodium comes from foods, some from water. The universal, consistent appetite for salt, public authorities agree, makes it the ideal vehicle for iodine fortification to prevent mental retardation.

Salt -- both sodium and chloride -- are essential not only to life, but to good health. It's always been that way. The body's salt/water ratio is critical to metabolism. Human blood contains 0.9% salt (sodium chloride) -- the same concentration as found in United States Pharmacopeia (USP) sodium chloride irrigant commonly used to cleanse wounds. Salt maintains the electrolyte balance inside and outside of cells. Routine physical examinations measure blood sodium for clues to personal health. Testing the salinity of perspiration is a good test for cystic fibrosis; scientists suspect that cystic fibrosis is caused by a deformed protein that prevents chloride outside cells from attracting needed moisture. Read about food salt and health