Many people know too much salt in their diet is a bad thing. Not nearly as many know exactly why.
“They’re surprised at the degree to which it can affect them,” said Dr. Cheryl Laffer, a professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. “And at the amount of salt that there is in the American diet.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 90% of Americans age 2 and older eat too much sodium. Most of it is in the form of salt, also known as sodium chloride.
Here are six things salt does to the body – and what you can do to protect yourself.
