I love salty foods and always put lots in when I am cooking and more on my plate of food. How much should I be using every day? PH.

I do understand where you are coming from as I have always loved salty foods particularly peanuts, crisps and have in the past put far too much on cooked food. However, you will find that if you start to reduce the amount you use steadily over the next two to three weeks you will begin to find your craving will become less intense.

Excess salt can cause raised blood pressure. When blood is over salty, it retains fluids, which increases the volume in the arteries. This causes a rise in the pressure. Too much salt and therefore fluid retention are also some of the reasons that weight can be hard to shift. We are over 65% water and even a 10% increase in our fluid content can result in over 5lbs in excess weight. One of the reasons for rapid weight loss at the beginning of a diet is that our salt intake has been reduced in relation to the drop in calories. We tend not to eat the foods that encourage us to add salt with the resulting loss of excess water.

One of the big danger areas for salt is processed foods and I use an 80/20 rule in any of my healthy eating plans. Use 80% natural foods and only 20% processed and you will automatically drop the amount of salt in your diet.

The recommended amount of salt is 5gm for women and 7gm for men. However, a useful measure is one level teaspoon per day. Put a level teaspoon times the amount of people you are cooking for in a coffee cup or something similar and add pinches to your cooking and to taste on your meals. If you run out before the evening, then I am afraid that is it.

If you must put salt on your food put on the side of the plate and only use when absolutely necessary. Read food labels on processed foods, and do not forget to check your mineral water. Multiply the sodium levels by 2.5 and see just how much salt you are drinking let alone eating.