Daily Salt Limit Calculator

How it is calculated

Table salt is sodium chloride, and only part of its weight is sodium, so a sodium target in milligrams has to be scaled up to get the salt it corresponds to. The tool uses salt (g) = sodium (mg) × 2.5 ÷ 1000. The factor 2.5 is the rounded inverse of salt's sodium share of about 39 %, and dividing by 1000 turns milligrams into grams. Teaspoons are then salt (g) ÷ 5.69, because the engine counts one level teaspoon of salt as 5.69 g. Both results are rounded to two decimals. The input is sodium in mg per day, not salt; zero is accepted, and an empty or negative value gives no result. The tool does not choose a target for you, so the figure comes from whichever guideline you type in.

Common mistakes

• Entering the salt weight instead of the sodium weight. If a label says 5 g of salt, the sodium is about 2,000 mg, so typing 5000 here would overstate it by 2.5 times.
• Typing grams where milligrams are needed. 2 g of sodium must be entered as 2000, not 2.
• Forgetting that the tool counts only the salt you add and the label shows in total. Bread, cheese and sauces already carry sodium, so the figure is the whole day's budget, not the amount to shake over food.
• Treating the teaspoon figure as precise. It assumes 5.69 g per level teaspoon; coarse sea salt and fine table salt pack differently, so measure on a scale if accuracy matters.
• Reading a sodium value on a nutrition label as a salt value. Many labels give sodium, and some give salt, so check which one it is first.