Half a teaspoon may not sound like much, but a study just published in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that reducing your daily salt consumption by that much—just 3 grams—may have far-reaching benefits.
The authors say such a small adjustment could "reduce the annual number of new cases of coronary heart disease by 60,000 to 120,000, stroke by 32,000 to 66,000, myocardial infarction (or heart attack) by 54,000 to 99,000"—and the annual number of deaths from any cause by 44,000 to 92,000.
The total cost savings to the health-care system from that 3-gram reduction: $10 billion to $24 billion annually. The researchers add that cutting even one gram of salt would "be more cost-effective than using medications to lower blood pressure in all persons with hypertension."
These are stunning numbers—though they are projections, determined by a statistical model. Nevertheless, they're based on a well-known fact: Too much salt can be harmful to your health, especially to your heart.
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