Why too much salt is bad for your heart
Links between dietary salt intake, renal salt handling, blood pressure, and cardiovascular diseases.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Your body was built to handle very little salt—less than a teaspoon a day—but most people eat way more. Eating too much salt makes your blood pressure go up and can hurt your heart and blood vessels—even if your blood pressure doesn’t change.
Surprising Findings
High salt intake damages the heart and arteries independently of blood pressure changes.
Most public health messaging focuses on salt → high BP → heart disease. This suggests salt harms the cardiovascular system through other direct pathways.
Practical Takeaways
Reduce added salt and processed foods—aim to stay under 2.3g/day (half a teaspoon), and ideally closer to 1g/day.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Your body was built to handle very little salt—less than a teaspoon a day—but most people eat way more. Eating too much salt makes your blood pressure go up and can hurt your heart and blood vessels—even if your blood pressure doesn’t change.
Surprising Findings
High salt intake damages the heart and arteries independently of blood pressure changes.
Most public health messaging focuses on salt → high BP → heart disease. This suggests salt harms the cardiovascular system through other direct pathways.
Practical Takeaways
Reduce added salt and processed foods—aim to stay under 2.3g/day (half a teaspoon), and ideally closer to 1g/day.
Publication
Journal
Physiological reviews
Year
2005
Authors
P. Meneton, X. Jeunemaître, H. D. de Wardener, G. MacGregor
Related Content
Claims (5)
Eating more salt won't make your blood pressure stay high if you're otherwise healthy.
Eating too much salt makes your blood pressure go up because your kidneys can't get rid of the extra salt, which is why many people have high blood pressure.
Even if your blood pressure doesn’t go up, eating too much salt can still make your heart muscle thicker and your arteries stiffer, which is bad for your heart.
Eating too much salt doesn’t just raise blood pressure—it also makes strokes more likely and heart failure worse.
Our bodies evolved to handle less than a teaspoon of salt per day, but most people today eat 10 times that much, which may be too much for our systems.