Has salt had its chips?

The media has been full of the government's new campaign to persuade us to eat less salt. Salt it seems is the satan of the supper dish, the lucifer of the lunch box. If you found the coverage a tad tedious, don't worry.

Everything you need to know about salt can be said in about 150 words. So here it is: the malehealth salt summary.

• About 26 million Brits eat too much salt - nearly half the population
• Too much salt can raise blood pressure causing strokes and heart attacks.
• 6g of salt a day is safe but men average about 11g.
• Processed foods are the main culprit — 80% of the salt we eat comes from tins, ready-meals, breads and other processed foods. Choose 'no added salt' tins.
• Double a food's sodium content to get the salt content. (Food labels lie. They list sodium - salt's chemical name is sodium chloride - but 1g of salt contains just 0.4g of sodium.)
• Check labels for other hidden sources of sodium such as sodium nitrate, monosodium glutamate and sodium bicarbonate.
• Salt makes you heavier by absorbing water. Food manufacturers use excess salt in their food for the same reason — to bulk it up and make it heavier.
• A diet with plenty of fruit and veg including potassium, magnesium and calcium can also help keep blood pressure down.

Meanwhile, the government says that sugar will be next. Imogen Sharp from the Department of Health told the Royal College of GPs conference in London last week: 'Sugar is next, once the present campaign on salt is over, we will be looking at a campaign to reduce the amount of sugar people are eating.'