Are you overdosing on salt?

It's commonly known that it is unhealthy to consume too much salt in food - and a recent survey highlighted just how damaging excessive levels can be in children's food - but what few are aware of is just how much salt you ingest in a typical day without even reaching for the saltcellar. We looked at a typical weekly diet - steering clear of obviously highly salted foods - and found that you can easily consume twice as much salt as is good for you without adding any yourself, increasing your chances of high-blood pressure and heart problems.

We do need a certain amount of salt for our bodies to function - to keep nerve pathways working and to maintain our muscles. But too much salt has been clearly linked with hypertension (it raises blood pressure), which, in turn, increases the risk of heart disease or stroke - Britain's biggest killer.

It has been estimated that reducing salt intake to the recommended 6g a day would mean that 20 per cent fewer people would suffer strokes, and there would be 15 per cent fewer heart attacks - saving around 20,000 lives each year. Eating too much salt has also been linked to osteoporosis and stomach cancer.

The fact is that we need only a flat teaspoonful - or 5g - a day. That might sound a huge amount to add to your food, but the fact is that there is so much salt hidden in the normal foodstuff which we consume thoughtlessly that it is easy for anyone to eat double that amount. Then, sprinkling salt on your food, or using salt when cooking vegetables, can easily add another 2g to your daily total.

The salt in our food lurks in the most unexpected places. Bread is a major offender, harbouring 0.4g per slice (though the good news is, that's 21 per cent less than there was four years ago). Cheese is another - a single ounce of cheddar also contains 0.4g. Breakfast cereals, ounce for ounce, are saltier than sea-water - cornflakes notch up 2.75g per 100g, whereas the same amount of seawater contains 2.5g of salt.

But it is our consumption of processed food, ready-meals and takeaways that really bumps up the total - the Food Standards Agency, which is lobbying the food industry to reduce the amount of salt in processed food, calculates that about 75 per cent of our salt intake comes from this source. A pre-prepared carton of beef stew can contain up to 6g of salt, and tinned soup can hold up to 3g of salt per tin.

"We consume too much salt due to the fast-paced lifestyles we lead," says Khush Mark, a nutrition consultant who has worked in New York and London. " Everything that is quick and easy to eat has tremendous amounts of salt in it. Table salt (sodium chloride) is responsible for raising blood pressure and causing heart problems.

Natural sea salt, by comparison, is health-promoting, since it contains many minerals including magnesium and calcium." It is the healthy alternative to sodium chloride - use it when cooking and on food instead of table salt. Up to 5g per day is considered safe.

Here we show just how, in an average week, it is all too easy to eat twice as much salt as is good for you.

Khush Mark is a nutrition consultant (020 8785 9553 or log on to www.khushmark.com).