Colima Sea Salt Review: How Much Sodium Do You Really Need?

QUICK SUMMARY

Sodium is essential for fluid balance, nerve signaling, muscle contraction, and normal physiology, but more is not automatically better and less is not automatically better for every person. The current Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend that most people age 14 and older consume less than 2,300 mg of sodium per day, while also acknowledging that highly active people may need more sodium to replace sweat losses. (1)

The strongest current evidence shows that reducing excessive sodium lowers blood pressure, and randomized trials using reduced-sodium, potassium-enriched salt substitutes have lowered stroke and cardiovascular-event risk in high-risk populations. At the same time, aggressive sodium restriction is not appropriate for everyone, and older observational studies that linked very low sodium intake with higher mortality remain part of an important scientific debate. Better sodium measurement has weakened the case for a universal 3,000 to 6,000 mg “sweet spot.” (4, 6, 8)

Our family prefers Colima Sea Salt because it is hand-harvested, minimally processed, free of anti-caking agents, and tastes fantastic. But sea salt is still mostly sodium chloride. Trace minerals do not cancel out the effects of excessive sodium, and most specialty sea salts are not iodized. (10, 11)

For almost 50 years, Americans have heard the same message: eat less salt for your heart.

So is that advice completely wrong? No. But the story is more nuanced than either “salt is bad” or “the more salt, the better.”

Sodium is an essential mineral. Your body needs it. Your needs also change with activity, sweat loss, climate, health conditions, medications, blood pressure, and the rest of your diet. At the same time, we now have strong evidence that chronically high sodium intake can raise blood pressure and that reducing excessive intake can improve cardiovascular outcomes in some populations.

The real question is not whether sodium is good or bad. It is how much you need, where it is coming from, and what kind of salt you choose when you add it to real food.

Is Less Salt Actually Good For You?

The first thing we need to clear up is the difference between sodium and salt.

Sodium is a mineral. Table salt is sodium chloride and is about 40% sodium by weight. One teaspoon of table salt contains roughly 2,400 mg of sodium. So when a health guideline says “2,300 mg per day,” it means 2,300 mg of sodium, not 2,300 mg of salt. (10)

According to the CDC, Americans currently consume more than 3,300 mg of sodium per day on average. Most of that does not come from the salt shaker. It comes from packaged, prepared, and restaurant foods. (3)

The current Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025-2030 recommend less than 2,300 mg of sodium per day for the general population age 14 and older. Importantly, the new guidelines also say that sodium and electrolytes are essential for hydration and that highly active people may benefit from additional sodium to replace what they lose in sweat. (1)

The American Heart Association recommends no more than 2,300 mg per day and describes 1,500 mg as an optimal goal for most adults, especially in the context of blood-pressure control. It also emphasizes that reducing intake by about 1,000 mg per day can improve blood pressure for many people. (2)

So is less sodium always better?

No. Sodium is essential, and individual needs matter.

But that is different from saying current sodium-reduction recommendations have no scientific support. They do. The strongest evidence is for lowering elevated blood pressure and reducing chronic-disease risk when intake is high. The National Academies found high-strength evidence for chronic-disease risk reduction when sodium intake is reduced within the approximate range of 2,300 to 4,100 mg per day. Evidence becomes less certain below 2,300 mg, which is one reason I do not like pretending there is one perfect number for every body. (4)

The Truth Behind Low-Sodium Diet Science

The low-sodium debate did not come out of nowhere.

Public-health efforts to reduce sodium accelerated in the 1970s as hypertension became a major prevention target. Early recommendations leaned heavily on the relationship between sodium and blood pressure because long-term randomized trials measuring heart attacks, strokes, and death were difficult and expensive to conduct.

That limitation helped fuel legitimate debate for decades.

Some older trials showed that substantial sodium restriction lowered blood pressure more dramatically in people with hypertension than in people with normal blood pressure. A 2020 Cochrane review also found that major sodium reductions increased renin, aldosterone, adrenaline, and noradrenaline and produced small short-term increases in cholesterol and triglycerides. (5)

Those findings are worth knowing. The body responds to sodium restriction through multiple hormonal systems, and a low-sodium diet is not physiologically neutral.

But the same Cochrane review also confirmed a meaningful blood-pressure reduction in people with hypertension. And newer evidence has filled in important gaps that were still open when many of the classic “war on salt” articles were written.

That means I would not frame the issue today as “scientists finally proved low sodium is dangerous.” The more accurate conclusion is this:

There is strong evidence against excessive sodium, legitimate uncertainty about how low everyone needs to go, and good reason to individualize sodium intake instead of treating every person the same.

That is a much more useful conversation for real families.

What the Latest Science on Salt Shows

The original version of this article highlighted several large observational studies that reported a J-shaped or U-shaped relationship between sodium and cardiovascular outcomes. In those studies, people consuming moderate amounts of sodium often appeared to fare better than people at either very high or very low intakes.

Those studies should not simply be erased. They are part of why sodium remains scientifically interesting.

But we now understand an important limitation: measuring a person's usual sodium intake is surprisingly difficult.

Some influential studies estimated 24-hour sodium intake from a single spot urine sample. A 2025 analysis involving more than 435,000 UK Biobank participants showed that common spot-urine formulas can create misleading associations between estimated sodium intake and cardiovascular outcomes. Earlier work comparing those estimates with repeated measured 24-hour urine collections found the same problem. (8)

When sodium is measured more carefully, the picture changes.

A pooled analysis published in the New England Journal of Medicine included 10,709 generally healthy adults whose sodium intake was assessed with at least two 24-hour urine collections. During a median follow-up of 8.8 years, higher sodium excretion was associated with higher cardiovascular risk in a dose-response pattern. Each additional 1,000 mg of sodium excretion per day was associated with an 18% higher cardiovascular risk, while higher potassium excretion was associated with lower risk. (7)

Randomized evidence also matters.

The Salt Substitute and Stroke Study included 20,995 older adults in rural China, most of whom had a history of stroke or uncontrolled high blood pressure. Villages were assigned either regular salt or a salt substitute containing 75% sodium chloride and 25% potassium chloride. Over nearly five years, the salt-substitute group had lower rates of stroke, major cardiovascular events, and death. (6)

Because that intervention both lowered sodium and increased potassium, we cannot say sodium reduction alone caused every benefit. But it is powerful evidence that replacing some sodium chloride with potassium chloride can improve major cardiovascular outcomes in an appropriate high-risk population.

A 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis of longer-term randomized salt-substitution trials likewise found that salt substitutes may reduce cardiovascular and all-cause mortality, although the authors noted that evidence for some outcomes and generalizability to Western populations remained uncertain. (9)

So where does that leave the older claim that eating less salt is more harmful to your heart?

The current evidence does not support that as a blanket statement.

There are observational studies suggesting harm at very low estimated intakes, but there are also important measurement and reverse-causation concerns. The National Academies concluded that evidence was insufficient to establish increased mortality harm from reducing sodium below 2,300 mg per day, while acknowledging more uncertainty in that lower-intake range. (4)

That is why I prefer discernment over extremes.

How Much Salt Should You Eat?

So should you eat more salt or less?

For most people, the best place to begin is not by chasing an extreme number. Start by looking at your actual diet.

The current federal recommendation for people age 14 and older is less than 2,300 mg of sodium per day. That is roughly the amount of sodium in one teaspoon of table salt, but remember that your daily total includes sodium already present in food. (1, 10)

The National Academies lists 1,500 mg per day as the Adequate Intake for most adults and recommends reducing intake when it is above 2,300 mg per day to lower chronic-disease risk. That does not mean 1,500 mg is a mandatory therapeutic target for every healthy adult. (4)

The older version of this article called 3,000 to 6,000 mg per day the “Goldilocks” range based largely on observational studies. I would not use that as a universal target today. Better-measured observational research and randomized salt-substitution trials do not support telling the general public that 3,000 to 6,000 mg is inherently safer than intake below 2,300 mg. (6, 7, 8)

But there are important exceptions to one-size-fits-all restriction.

When You May Need More Sodium

People who exercise hard, work outdoors in hot weather, sweat heavily, or lose substantial fluids can have higher sodium needs. The 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines specifically acknowledge that highly active individuals may benefit from increased sodium intake to offset sweat losses. (1)

Prolonged endurance exercise can also create a very different electrolyte problem from the everyday high-sodium diet. Exercise-associated hyponatremia can occur when blood sodium becomes too diluted, often because fluid intake exceeds the body's ability to excrete water, sometimes combined with sodium losses in sweat. (12)

This is why “low blood sodium” and “eating a low-sodium diet” are not interchangeable ideas.

Hyponatremia is a medical condition involving the sodium concentration in your blood. It can occur because of excess water intake, certain medications, kidney or hormonal problems, prolonged exercise, illness, and other causes. Simply eating less than 2,300 mg of sodium does not automatically mean your blood sodium will become dangerously low.

Other people may need individualized sodium targets because of hypertension, kidney disease, heart failure, medications, or other medical conditions.

Bottom line: sodium is essential, but your ideal intake is not determined by an internet slogan.

Your body needs sodium for things like:

• Maintaining normal fluid balance
• Supporting nerve impulses
• Helping muscles, including the heart, contract normally
• Supporting normal extracellular fluid volume

There is a reason humans have valued salt for thousands of years. We need sodium and chloride to live.

But needing sodium does not mean unlimited sodium is beneficial. The goal is enough for your needs without letting processed-food sodium quietly dominate your diet.

Not All Salt Is Made Equal!

This is where our family's preference has not changed.

When we add salt to our food, we want a salt we enjoy using, from a source we trust, with as little unnecessary processing as possible.

Standard table salt is processed to create a fine, uniform crystal. Depending on the product, it may contain anti-caking agents to keep it free-flowing. It may also be iodized, which is an important nutritional advantage for households that do not get dependable iodine elsewhere.

Sea salt is made by evaporating seawater or saltwater brine and is often less processed. It can retain trace amounts of minerals such as magnesium, potassium, and calcium. But this is where we need to be accurate: those minerals are generally present in small amounts and do not make sea salt a meaningful mineral supplement. Table salt, kosher salt, and most sea salts are still approximately 40% sodium by weight. (10)

So why do we still strongly recommend Colima Sea Salt?

Because food quality is about more than one nutrient number.

Colima Sea Salt comes from the Cuyutlán Lagoon saltpans of Colima, Mexico and is hand-harvested using traditional methods. We love its coarse texture, clean salty flavor, and the fact that it is sold without the anti-caking agents found in many conventional salts.

Ava Jane's Kitchen also reports that its Colima Sea Salt has been laboratory tested and found free of ocean-borne microplastics. That is a manufacturer-specific testing claim, not evidence that all lagoon salt is microplastic-free or that trace minerals cancel out the cardiovascular effects of excessive sodium. (13)

One more thing matters if Colima or another specialty salt is the only salt your family uses: most specialty sea salts are not iodized. NIH notes that iodized salt is a dependable iodine source, while noniodized sea salt provides virtually no iodine. Make sure your family gets adequate iodine from another reliable food or supplement source if your salt does not provide it. (11)

That is the balanced way I look at salt today.

Do not fear a pinch of real salt on God-made food. Do not assume that because a salt is hand-harvested you can ignore total sodium intake either. And do not let packaged food manufacturers choose most of your sodium for you.

Cook from scratch. Taste your food. Use a salt you trust. Pay attention to your blood pressure and individual needs. That is a much wiser strategy than turning salt into either a villain or a miracle food.

NLF “Group Buy” (Bag of Salt for FREE)

As part of our partnership with Colima Sea Salt, we are offering you your first half-pound of nutrient-rich, flavor-filled salt for FREE as part of the Natural Living Family “Group Buy” special.

Free from microplastics, anti-caking agents, and rich in trace minerals this is the best sea salt on the market!

–> Taste real, healthy salt today!

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