How bad is eating a lot of salt for me?
Eating less salt demonstrably lowers your blood pressure and reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, and that effect is noticeable within just a few weeks.
Eating less salt lowers your blood pressure, and it happens quickly. In a study of 213 adults aged 50 to 75, systolic blood pressure dropped by an average of 8 mmHg within just one week of switching to a low-salt diet. That effect occurred in 73% of participants, including people who were already taking blood pressure medication1. In diabetic patients with high blood pressure, the drop was as large as 14 mmHg after 8 weeks2.
That higher blood pressure also translates into a greater risk of cardiovascular disease. A meta-analysis of 36 studies involving more than 616,000 participants found that people with high salt intake had a 19% greater chance of cardiovascular disease. For each additional gram of sodium per day, that risk increased by around 6%3. Moreover, the risk of high blood pressure begins to rise above 3 grams of sodium per day, while the recommendation is a maximum of 2 grams4.
High salt intake is also associated with other health problems, although the evidence there is less solid. A 2025 review article mentions higher risks of stomach cancer, kidney stones, bone loss and stroke, and describes possible negative effects on your gut microbiome and immune system5. A large observational study with more than 215,000 participants also found a link with eczema: each additional gram of sodium per day was associated with an 11 to 16% greater chance of eczema. However, because it is a snapshot in time, no cause-and-effect relationship can be drawn from this6.
Eating less salt demonstrably helps, especially in combination with other lifestyle changes such as the DASH diet, reducing alcohol and exercising more. Together, these can lower systolic blood pressure by around 3.5 mmHg and reduce cardiovascular risk by approximately 30%7.
For endurance athletes, the picture is somewhat more nuanced. During prolonged exercise, both your salt and fluid intake matter: too little salt can lead to sodium levels in the blood that are too low, while too much also causes problems. The exact recommendation for athletes has not yet been fully established8. For the average adult who does not exercise intensively, eating less salt is almost always beneficial.
The blood pressure effects come from an RCT and a randomised study. The cardiovascular disease risk comes from a meta-analysis of 36 studies (n=616,000). The relationship between salt intake and high blood pressure is based on a meta-analysis of 11 cohort studies. The broader risks such as stomach cancer, kidney stones and eczema are observational and associative in nature. The sports claim comes from a systematic review, but causality is limited.