Just 15 types of foods are responsible for more than half the salt Americans eat, and this is true no matter how old you are, what gender or race you are, or how much money you make — so cutting salt from these foods could help everyone.

People of different races, ethnicities, and income levels all get most of their salt from the same top 15 foods, so one simple rule to cut salt can work for everyone without needing different recipes for different groups.

In the U.S., five common foods—pizza, bread, deli meats, soup, and tacos/burritos—add up to more than one-fifth of all the salt people eat, and each one alone adds about 4-5% of that salt. That’s why health experts think cutting salt in these foods could help everyone eat less sodium.

If you have high blood pressure and eat less salt—cutting from about 4.6 grams down to 1.5–2.4 grams a day—your blood pressure will likely go down a bit, especially if you're older, Black, or have kidney disease or metabolic syndrome.

In older people in the Netherlands, how much salt they say they eat doesn’t seem to link to more heart problems or early death — maybe they’re not reporting it right, or salt just doesn’t affect them much at the levels they’re eating.

Eating less salt can help lower your blood pressure a little bit — on average, by about 3-4 points for the top number and 1-2 points for the bottom number, based on studies of many different people.