Possibly the best news I've heard in a long while. Most of the people in my circle eat relatively high-sodium diets. I wonder where I got the impression that sodium is so dangerous?

I had no idea. I was just always told that high sodium consumption can lead to high blood pressure. My dad has high blood pressure and blames it on sodium, so he's always given me the impression that sodium is THE DEVIL.

I drank 14 glasses of water yesterday to make up for that beef jerky that had around 870mg of sodium. I weighed myself this morning and weighed the same as I did yesterday.

IF you are genetically prone to salt induced hypertension, then eating salt can bring out this inherent trait... If you arent, it wont. Problem is, most people dont know if they are or not until later in life. If you have a family history of hypertension this is something to keep an eye on. It can come on rather suddenly

The AMA is very anti sodium at the moment, pushing to lower the level below 2400 mg.

Personally, with no family history of hypertension and a BP of 95-100/50-60, no smoking, moderate alcohol, high exercise levels and (now) a healthy weight with largely unprocessed foods but a love of salsa, indian and pickles, the person who tries to take my salt away better have an army and a whole lot of ammo.

Over time sodium will raise your blood pressure and that can lead to kidney damage. 1 in every 8 Americans has some kidney damage, many don't know it. My husband is on renal dialysis (kidney failure was caused by medication) so we are a NO sodium house. We use only fresh or frozen (without added salt) foods. Nothing that is prepackaged, no frozen meals etc. For us it is a matter of life or death. I have every Mrs. Dash flavor made and our food is still flavorful. As a side benefit, when I went to the md last week, my blood pressure was down nearly 20 points. He was very pleased.