Let us be honest here, salt is delicious. Maybe not by itself, but it sure makes food taste better. I personally add salt to all the food I eat: eggs, soup, meat, and of course fries. Salt is a must to pretty much every great tasting dish. But too much salt is dangerous to our health.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently released a report stating that nine out of ten American citizens each too much salt daily. This means that 90% of the U.S population is overindulging on this delicious yet dangerous spice. The recommended daily intake of salt is 2,300 milligrams. If you have certain conditions or are over the age of 50, your daily limit should be around 1,500 milligrams. However, the average American consumes about 3,250 milligrams a day, not including salt added at the table. Why is this a problem? High sodium levels increase blood pressure and the risk for heart attack and stroke. Heart attacks are the leading cause of death for Americans. So if we could lower the number of heart disease cases by simply reducing salt intake, why wouldn’t we?! And if you are not worried about your heart health, think of this problem from a financial point of view. Heart disease and stroke cost the American population over $273 billion in health care costs annually.

After 15 years study, researchers found that people who eat more sodium and less potassium will die of heart will sooner than people who consume the opposite. Although many people believe that slashing intake will save lives, not everyone is convinced this phenomena. Due to the contradictory research.

Study shows that men consumed an average of 4323 milligrams of sodium  a day, while women consumed 2918 milligrams a day. But the American Heart Association suggest people to take 1500 milligrams a day or less.

The group with the highest sodium-to-potassium ratio had a mortality risk about 50% higher during the study than the group with the lowest, according to the report by Elena V. Kuklina, M.D., and colleagues at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Emory University, and the Harvard School of Public Health. The research was published Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

You shouldn’t believe everything you read, especially when it comes to the labels on your food. Companies are able to mislead consumers by advertising healthier foods when in actuality their products contain completely different amounts of vitamins, carbohydrates, sugar, protein, fat- both saturated and unsaturated, sodium, cholesterol and various other ingredients.