Less than 2000 mg a day
The WHO advises adults to keep sodium under 2000 mg per day — that is under 5 g of salt, about one teaspoon. Most people in industrialised diets blow past this before dinner, because the bulk of sodium arrives in processed and restaurant food rather than from the salt shaker.
| Figure | What it measures | Share of the daily limit |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 mg | WHO daily sodium limit for adults | 100% of the budget |
| 5 g | Salt equivalent of the limit, about one teaspoon | fills the budget |
| 40% | Sodium share of table salt's mass | conversion factor |
| 2 g sodium | What 5 g of salt contains | 100% of the budget |
| 1.7 million | Deaths in 2023 linked to excess sodium | global burden |
| 30% | WHO target reduction in mean population salt intake | policy goal |
| ~1 tsp | Practical salt measure for a whole day's cooking | the ceiling in kitchen terms |
Anything above 2000 mg of sodium in a day exceeds the WHO recommended ceiling for adults.
The WHO recommends that adults consume less than 2000 mg of sodium per day, equivalent to under 5 g of salt or about one teaspoon. Treat that figure as a hard ceiling rather than a target: staying comfortably below it leaves room for the sodium already hidden in bread, cheese, sauces and restaurant meals.
The arithmetic is simple. Table salt is sodium chloride, and sodium makes up about 40 percent of its mass, so 5 g of salt contains about 2 g of sodium. If you salt your own cooking, one level teaspoon spread across three meals is roughly the whole daily allowance.
In typical industrialised diets the majority of sodium comes from processed and restaurant food, not from the salt shaker. That is why a home cook who measures salt carefully can still overshoot the limit without realising it.
The primary health effect of a high-sodium diet is raised blood pressure, which increases the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Raised blood pressure is the main pathway by which excess sodium harms the body, and cardiovascular disease is the downstream risk. An estimated 1.7 million deaths in 2023 were associated with consuming too much sodium, which puts the issue among the largest avoidable burdens in public health.
High sodium intake is also linked to gastric cancer, obesity, osteoporosis, Meniere's disease and kidney disease. These conditions do not all develop quickly, but they share the same upstream exposure: more sodium than the body comfortably handles day after day.
The WHO calls reducing sodium intake one of the most cost-effective measures for improving population health, because the intervention is behavioural and cheap rather than technological.
In typical industrialised diets the majority of sodium arrives in processed and restaurant food.
The salt shaker is a small part of the picture. Bread, cheese, cured meats, ready meals, sauces and restaurant dishes contribute far more milligrams per sitting than the pinch a home cook adds at the stove.
This distribution explains why the WHO global target is a 30 percent reduction in mean population salt intake: cutting sodium at the product level reaches everyone, including people who never pick up a salt shaker.
Potassium-rich foods help counter sodium's effect on blood pressure, so the practical goal is not only fewer milligrams of sodium but a diet where vegetables, legumes and fruit carry their share of the plate.
Each figure maps one number from the WHO recommendation onto a practical decision.
References are limited to the WHO recommendation on sodium intake, its global salt reduction target, and published mortality estimates for 2023.