Assessment of Dietary Salt and Sodium Intake: From Device to Questionnaire

Salt is indispensable for the water balance homeostasis in the human body. Although it is well known that excess salt intake is related to hypertension, direct measurement of dietary salt intake is time consuming and lacks accuracy. In this review, we would like to review the literature reporting the tactics in measuring dietary salt intake and to how much extent it correlates with hypertension, as well as historical features on how the relationship between salt and hypertension earned general status. From the recent increase of processed foods, the term “salt intake” would not accurately be equal to “sodium intake”. Sodium intake questionnaires may be inaccurate, but they will sure evoke awareness on the threatening consequences of excess sodium intake. Devices measuring urinary sodium excretion have been developed and evaluated on their accuracy and correlation with sodium intake. They must be handy, simple and capable of measuring large populations to be useful for monitoring the long term effects by sodium.