Smart snacking

How Much Salt Per Day? The 5 g Limit, and How to Count the Salt in Namkeen

How much salt is too much, and how much is in the namkeen I eat?

WHO and India’s dietary guidelines both set the limit at 5 g of salt a day — about a teaspoon — and nearly half of Indians are over it. How to turn the sodium on a namkeen label into grams of salt, and what a handful costs you.

By · Sourced nutrition, food safety and kitchen notes · Pure Bites, Surat

· 4 min read

The limit is 5 g of salt a day for an adult: one level teaspoon, counting everything — the dal, the roti, the pickle and the namkeen. The World Health Organization and India’s own dietary guidelines agree on the figure. The guidelines also estimate that about 45% of Indians eat more than that. Namkeen is one of the places the extra comes from, and we make namkeen, so this is how to count it honestly.

Salt per day at a glance

  • The limit: less than 5 g of salt, which is less than 2,000 mg of sodium, per adult per day.
  • The conversion: sodium in mg × 2.5 = salt in mg. Labels print sodium, not salt.
  • The snack share: a 30 g handful of a snack at 800 mg sodium per 100 g is about 0.6 g of salt.

How much salt per day is safe?

Where does the salt in an Indian diet come from?

Less from food itself than most people think. The guidelines estimate that natural food contributes under a tenth of sodium intake; the rest is salt added in cooking or in processing. They name chips, sauces, biscuits and bakery products among packaged sources, and savoury snacks, namkeen, papad and pickles among home-style ones. A meal can therefore be modest in salt and the day still be high, because of what was eaten around the meals.

How much salt is in namkeen?

It varies widely by recipe, so read the pack in your hand rather than trusting a general figure. Indian labels must state sodium in milligrams, and the percentage of the daily allowance per serve is calculated against 2,000 mg. Three steps turn that into something you can picture.

  1. Find sodium per 100 g. Say the label reads 800 mg.
  2. Multiply by 2.5 for salt. Salt is 40% sodium, so 800 mg sodium is 2,000 mg, or 2 g, of salt per 100 g.
  3. Scale to what you eat. A 30 g handful is 0.6 g of salt — about 12% of the 5 g day. Three handfuls is over a third.

The 800 mg is an example to show the method, not a measurement of any product. For the rest of the panel, see how to read a snack ingredient list.

How to eat namkeen and stay under 5 g

  • Put it in a bowl. A handful from a bowl is a portion; a hand in the packet is not.
  • Pair it with potassium. The guidelines stress the sodium-to-potassium balance, and name vegetables, fruit, beans, lentils, banana and coconut water as potassium sources.
  • Take the salt out elsewhere that day. Skip the papad and the pickle on a namkeen day.
  • Choose plain over masala when both are on offer; a dusted masala coating adds salt on top of what is already in the dough.
  • Taste before salting at the table. The taste for salt is acquired, the guidelines say, and it can be un-acquired.

Salt — common questions

How many teaspoons of salt per day?

About one level teaspoon, 5 g, from all sources. The guidelines and WHO both use that figure for adults.

Is sodium the same as salt?

No. Salt is sodium chloride and is about 40% sodium. Multiply sodium by 2.5 to get salt.

Is rock salt or pink salt healthier than table salt?

They are all mostly sodium chloride, and the 5 g limit applies to each. Iodised salt also supplies iodine, which the guidelines’ meal plans specify.

Does frying add salt?

No. Salt comes from the dough and the seasoning. Frying adds fat.

Can children eat namkeen?

In small amounts. Their salt limit is lower than an adult’s, and the guidelines advise restricting salt from an early age.

See the packs, and what is in them 500 g and 1 kg, fried after the order

Sources