The usual way to define who benefits from eating less salt misses more than half of people who still get a meaningful drop in blood pressure — so the definition is too strict.

Cutting down on salt lowers blood pressure more for people who already have high blood pressure than for those with normal blood pressure—about 2.5 times more.

Different studies say reducing salt lowers blood pressure by wildly different amounts—some say almost nothing, others say a bit more—so we’re really not sure how much of an effect salt really has.

If you replace some of the regular salt in your food with a salt substitute that has less sodium, your blood pressure might drop a little — about 1.5 points for the top number and 1 point for the bottom number for every 10% less salt you use.

If you have high blood pressure and cut down on salt from a lot to very little, your top blood pressure number might drop by about 7 to 9 points — and the higher your blood pressure was to start with, the more it drops.

Even if your blood pressure is normal, cutting back on salt still helps lower it a little—which could help prevent high blood pressure as you get older.