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.

People who eat about 3 to 6 grams of salt per day seem to have fewer heart problems and live longer than those who eat much less or much more salt — it’s like there’s a sweet spot for salt intake.

For older people in the Netherlands, eating a lot or a little salt doesn’t seem to reliably make heart problems or death more or less likely—even if they’re overweight. So salt intake probably isn’t a strong predictor of health outcomes in this group.

People with heart failure who say they eat very little salt actually have a higher chance of dying sooner — even after accounting for how sick they are or their age and income — which makes scientists wonder if people are just bad at remembering or reporting what they eat.

Eating less salt may help people live longer and avoid heart-related deaths, according to studies that combined results from many other studies.

For people with slightly high blood pressure, eating more or less salt doesn’t seem to change their chance of dying, no matter how old they are, their gender, race, or whether they tried to lose weight — this pattern held true for over 20 years.