The Real Deal on Salt: Why “Balancing” is Better Than “Restricting” - PART 5
For many midlife men, a rigid 1500 mg limit that many medical doctors recommend could be unnecessarily low and make it hard to stay hydrated and energised.
Another issue is that focusing on a single number ignores context; getting 3,000 mg of sodium from a fast-food burger meal full of trans fats is not the same as sprinkling 3,000 mg worth of mineral-rich sea salt on home-cooked veggies and lean protein.
The source and context matter, but current RDAs don’t distinguish these nuances.
Let’s talk numbers for a moment. What do official guidelines actually recommend for salt and key electrolytes, and how might those recommendations miss the mark? Here’s a quick rundown of the Recommended Dietary Allowances/intakes (or guideline targets) and why they may not be optimal for everyone:
Sodium (Salt):
🧂 Most health authorities suggest keeping sodium below 2,300 mg per day (which is about one teaspoon of table salt, ~6 grams of salt)[1][2].
🧂 The American Heart Association goes even further, urging an “ideal” limit of 1,500 mg for most adults[3].
🧂 In the UK, the guideline is no more than 6 g of salt (≈2,400 mg sodium) per day.
🧂 Australia and New Zealand set a “Suggested Dietary Target” around 2,000 mg sodium (≈5 g salt) for adults[4].
These numbers were meant to reduce hypertension and stroke risk in the population.
How this might be wrong:
Firstly, as we’ve detailed in PART 4, there’s scant evidence that dropping sodium this low improves outcomes for generally healthy people, and going too low may actually be harmful.
In fact, research shows that most of the world’s populations naturally consume between about 2.3 g and 4.6 g of sodium daily (roughly 1 to 2 teaspoons of salt) without elevated heart risks[5].
It’s as if humans gravitate to a moderate salt intake when eating according to appetite. Populations eating <2 g/day sodium are rare and often not healthier (many are less developed regions where low sodium comes with malnutrition).
Moreover, sodium needs aren’t one-size-fits-all: if you exercise heavily, live in a hot climate, or eat a low-carb diet, you will likely need more than 2.3 g of sodium for optimal function (we’ll discuss those cases soon).
Potassium:
Potassium is the counterbalance to sodium in the body. It relaxes blood vessels, helps excrete sodium, and a high-potassium diet is strongly associated with lower blood pressure and stroke risk.
The recommended intake for potassium is around 3,500–4,700 mg per day for adults (4.7 g in the US; WHO recommends at least 3.51 g)[1].
To put that in perspective, you’d need to eat a lot of produce (bananas, leafy greens, beans, potatoes) to hit 4+ grams of potassium daily.
How this might be wrong (or rather, neglected):
Unlike sodium, which many people get “too much” of (relative to old guidelines) via processed foods, potassium is something most people get too little of.
The average intake is often well below 3.5g. Yet, public health messaging has not hammered on “eat your potassium” nearly as much as “cut your salt.” This is a huge oversight.
Studies indicate that boosting potassium intake has clearer benefits for blood pressure and cardiovascular risk than sodium reduction. For instance, one observational analysis found that people who got at least ~3,000 mg of potassium daily had a 25% lower risk of cardiovascular disease compared to those getting under 2,500 mg[6].
Potassium helps mitigate sodium’s effect; a higher sodium-to-potassium ratio is a known risk factor for hypertension[7][8].
So the problem isn’t just that we eat “too much sodium,” it’s that we eat too little potassium to balance it out. Leafy greens, fruits, and vegetables are under-consumed, while processed foods (high in sodium, low in potassium) dominate.
A functional approach says:
Rather than just cutting salt, increase potassium (and other minerals) through diet. The current RDA is fine, but the priority placed on achieving it is low in mainstream advice. We’d rather see men focus on “potassium-loading” their diet (e.g. plenty of veggies, avocado, maybe a potassium citrate supplement if needed) while enjoying salt to taste, than obsess over every milligram of sodium.
Magnesium:
Magnesium doesn’t get the spotlight in the salt discussion, but it should. Mg is involved in hundreds of enzymatic reactions, promotes muscle relaxation (including the smooth muscle in blood vessels), and has anti-inflammatory effects.
The RDA for magnesium is about 400–420 mg per day for adult men (310–320 mg for women). Foods high in magnesium include nuts, seeds, leafy greens, and whole grains.
Why this matters:
Magnesium intake is often suboptimal; many men don’t reach 400 mg/day due to diets low in greens and high in refined foods (which strip magnesium).
Low magnesium can contribute to high blood pressure, irregular heart rhythms, muscle cramps, poor sleep, and more.
Relevant to our topic: inadequate magnesium can make any negative effects of a high-sodium diet worse, and conversely, ample magnesium is associated with better cardiovascular outcomes.
In the Framingham Offspring Study, researchers found that people with magnesium intake ≥320 mg/day had a 34% lower risk of cardiovascular disease than those getting <240 mg/day[6].
This effect was independent of sodium intake. In fact, higher magnesium was protective regardless of whether people ate low or high salt[9].
Meanwhile, simply having lower sodium by itself showed no significant benefit on heart disease risk[10].
This tells us that getting enough magnesium (and potassium) is far more important for your heart health than aggressively cutting sodium. The current RDA for magnesium is reasonable, but like potassium, it’s an often-neglected part of the public health conversation.
A man can dutifully avoid salty foods as told, but if he’s not getting magnesium (or potassium), he might still end up hypertensive or with heart issues.
Functional medicine would check magnesium levels (or signs of deficiency) in a patient with high BP before blaming the salt shaker.
Chloride:
Chloride is the other component of salt (sodium chloride is ~40% sodium, ~60% chloride by weight). There’s not much talk of chloride RDAs separately. Generally, if you get recommended sodium, you’ll get sufficient chloride. However, chloride is interesting because some early 20th-century scientists actually suspected chloride (not sodium) was the blood pressure-raising element of salt[11].
Today, we know both ions play roles in fluid balance. The Adequate Intake (AI) for chloride for adults is around 2,300 mg/day (per the US Institute of Medicine), which coincides with the sodium recommendations (given typical salt).
Chloride from salt, plus smaller amounts from foods like seaweed, olives, and celery, usually covers needs.
What’s “wrong” here?
Not much inherently, chloride deficiency is very rare except in extreme cases (like excessive vomiting or sweating without replacement). But by focusing so much on “sodium” in isolation, guidelines ignore that salt is a package deal of sodium and chloride.
Very low salt diets mean low chloride too, which could, for instance, affect digestion (chloride is needed to make stomach acid).
There’s even some evidence that low serum chloride in hypertensive patients is associated with higher mortality, independent of sodium, possibly because chloride reflects overall electrolyte balance or kidney function.
The key point:
Our bodies need chloride just as they need sodium, and a diet of whole foods with added salt generally provides a healthy balance. The war on “sodium” inadvertently became a war on chloride as well, without much justification.
Balancing vs. Restricting:
The fundamental flaw in conventional salt advice is that it fixates on the restriction of a single electrolyte rather than the balance among all electrolytes and overall diet quality.
A functional perspective emphasises that context is everything.
Are you eating a diet rich in potassium and magnesium, with lots of whole foods? If yes, then your sodium intake (within a broad range) is far less concerning. Your body will handle it, and those other minerals will keep you in check.
On the other hand, someone eating a junk-food diet that’s high in sodium and low in potassium/Mg is at risk. But not simply because of the sodium itself. The combo of high sodium + low potassium + low magnesium + high sugar + calories is a perfect storm for hypertension and heart disease.
Unfortunately, instead of attacking that whole cluster, mainstream guidelines tried to isolate sodium as the villain. It’s like blaming one player for a whole team’s losses.
To illustrate: A 2021 analysis stated “Lower sodium intake (<2500 mg/d vs ≥3500 mg/d) was not associated with lower CVD risk”, whereas higher potassium and magnesium intakes were strongly associated with lower risk[6].
In other words, people who ate more sodium (as long as it was above 3500mg) did no worse in terms of heart health, but people who got more potassium and magnesium did much better. The best outcomes were seen in those who had adequate magnesium regardless of sodium level[9].
This reinforces that rather than blindly slashing salt, we should make sure we get enough of the protective minerals that naturally keep blood pressure and cardiovascular function in balance.
So, what’s a practical take-home regarding “RDA” for these electrolytes?
Here’s a functional-minded guideline:
Aim for at least 3,500–4,700 mg of potassium per day (from vegetables, fruits, potatoes, beans, etc.). This often has more impact on blood pressure than halving your salt.
Ensure you get around 400+ mg of magnesium per day (supplement if necessary, as many do, since modern foods can be Mg-poor). Your muscles, heart, and even mood will thank you.
Don’t be afraid of sodium in the 3,000–5,000mg range (roughly 7–12 g of salt), especially if you are following a whole-food diet and maintaining good potassium intake[12].
This range covers what many researchers believe is optimal for most people; it’s within the physiological norm observed in populations with the best health outcomes[13].
Very active individuals may need even more, whereas those with certain conditions might aim for the lower end of this range. But strictly limiting yourself to 1,500–2,000 mg (unless medically advised for a specific condition) is unnecessary for most, and could even be counterproductive (leading to fatigue, cramps, etc., as we’ll see).
Use quality sources of salt and get chloride naturally (you’ll get enough if you salt your food to taste).
Sea salt, Himalayan salt, or even fortified electrolyte mixtures can provide chloride along with other trace minerals, unlike the sodium additives in processed foods that often come paired with harmful ingredients.
By balancing these elements, you support your body’s natural homeostasis. As the old saying goes, “Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.” In trying to eliminate salt (sodium chloride), conventional guidelines essentially threw out the chloride baby and starved the body of sodium, while also overlooking that the bathwater needed more potassium and magnesium. A smarter strategy is to keep what we need (salt in reasonable amounts) and enrich the diet with complementary nutrients.
