article_snippet.sent: For years medical experts have warned about the dangers of too much salt, but now new research is questioning conventional wisdom and warning instead of the dangers of too little salt .
article_snippet.sent: For years medical experts have warned about the dangers of too much salt, but new research is now questioning conventional wisdom and warning instead of the dangers of too little salt.
article_snippet.sent: Both federal government regulations and the American Heart Association have for decades warned that excess salt contributes to the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans each year.
article_snippet.sent: As the federal government prepares the federal government influential Dietary Guidelines for 2015, some scientists are now saying that the average American salt consumption rate carries no risk.
article_snippet.sent: There is no longer any valid basis for the current salt guidelines,' said Andrew Mente, a professor at McMaster University in Ontario and one of the researchers involved in a major study published last year by the New England Journal of Medicine. '
article_snippet.sent: So why are Andrew Mente, a professor at McMaster University in Ontario and one of the researchers involved in a major study published last year by the New England Journal of Medicine still scaring people about salt?'
article_snippet.sent: While experts on both sides agree that eating too much salt - especially for people with high blood pressure - can be dangerous there is much disagreement over what constitutes too much.
article_snippet.sent: The average American ingests about 3,500 milligrams of salt per day - the amount of sodium in a teaspoon of salt - and so under the current salt guidelines Americans are indeed endangering Americans.
article_snippet.sent: Even within the American Heart Association, one of the organizations promoting the current salt limits, there is disagreement with at least one former president claiming that there is no evidence that reducing salt consumption can lower blood pressure .
article_snippet.sent: Salt skeptics however believe most Americans are fine.
article_snippet.sent: Even within the American Heart Association, one of the organizations promoting the current salt limits, there is disagreement. '
article_snippet.sent: The totality of the evidence strongly suggests that Americans should be lowering Americans sodium intake,' said Elliott Antman, the president of the American Heart Association. '
article_snippet.sent: Everyone agrees that current sodium intake is too high.'
article_snippet.sent: But Suzanne Oparil, a former president of the American Heart Association, told the Post that there is no evidence that reducing salt consumption can lower blood pressure.
article_snippet.sent: A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services has said that the federal guidelines are considering comments from the public and the advice of the Department of Health and Human Services science panel.
highlights_snippet.sent: Current federal government guidelines dictate the people should limit the people salt intake to 2,300 milligrams .
  
highlights_snippet.sent: Average American ingests about 3,500 milligrams of salt per day .