the study found that low salt, or sodium, intake may raise the risk of heart attack, stroke, and death, compared with an average salt intake.
Lead author Andrew Mente, of the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University in Canada, and colleagues say their results indicate only people with high blood pressure (hypertension) who have a high salt intake should reduce their salt consumption.
Furthermore, the researchers suggest current recommendations for daily salt consumption may be set too low.
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend that Americans consume less than 2,300 milligrams of sodium each day - the equivalent to 1 teaspoon of salt.
However, a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) earlier this year revealed that around 90 percent of Americans consume salt at levels above the recommended limit.
It is widely accepted that too much salt in the diet can lead to high blood pressure, increasing the risk for heart attack, stroke, and other cardiovascular diseases.
But does reducing salt intake to the levels recommended in current guidelines really reduce the risk of such outcomes? This is what Mente and colleagues set out to investigate.