How much salt do you eat?

You might think it's not much, but don't be so sure!

Every day, 26 million adults in the UK eat too much salt.

When most people think about salt, they think about sprinkling it on a meal, or adding a pinch to cooking. But, in fact, most of the salt we eat (75%) is in everyday foods, such as pasta sauces, ready meals, pizzas and sandwiches.

Almost everyone eats some of these types of foods. Even people who make all their own meals from scratch will usually buy foods such as bread and cheese, which contain salt.

So, before you assume that you don't eat too much salt, take a look at what you're buying, as well as how you use salt at home.

The good news is that you can start choosing foods that are lower in salt. When you're at the shops, try comparing two similar foods and choose the one that contains less salt.

Here is a quick way to tell if a food is high in salt by looking at the nutritional information on the label

Look at the figure for salt per 100g.

High is more than 1.5g salt per 100g (or 0.6g sodium)
Low is 0.3g salt or less per 100g (or 0.1g sodium)

If the amount of salt per 100g is in between these figures, then that is a medium level of salt.

Try to avoid eating lots of foods that are high in salt because then it can be easy to have too much. Adults should eat no more than 6g salt a day and kids should have even less.

To find out more, visit the Food Standards Agency's salt website or Action Salt's websites by clicking on the links above.