Eating more salt is linked to a higher risk of heart disease, and this seems to be true whether scientists measure salt intake from what people remember eating or from their urine tests.

Eating more salt is linked to heart disease risk — and this link stays about the same no matter how old you are, whether you're a man or woman, how long studies look at people, or how good the studies are.

Measuring salt intake just once might make us think it's more or less harmful than it really is—using multiple measurements over time shows the risk could be very different, by as much as 85%.

Eating more salt might increase your chances of heart problems as you get older — one big analysis found people who eat a lot of salt have about a 19% higher risk than those who eat less.

Eating more salt every day is linked to a higher chance of heart problems and strokes—every extra gram of salt per day raises your risk by a little bit, according to a big review of many studies.

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.