I tried the UK's 'saltiest' sandwich - here's what I learned

"The sarnie, sold by bakery chain Gail's, contains 6.88g of salt. That's more than the UK's recommended daily limit of 6g, or the World Health Organization's 5g cap. So, it's clearly not the healthiest choice. But succumbing to the siren song of salt, I left my packed lunch at home to give it a whirl and find out what regularly eating too much salt is doing to our health."

"Director of nutrition, Dr Luz Maria De Regil, said "excess salt consumption remains among the top preventable drivers of death globally" and put the figure at 1.7m deaths a year. Gulp. So as my body absorbs all that salt from one meal, what is it doing to me and why are we all eating so much?"

"Chemically, table salt is sodium chloride. The human body needs some sodium to function and you can find the element in nearly every cell of the body. It's needed for our nerves to communicate with each other and for the body to maintain the right balance of water. "But the amount we need is actually very, very small in the grand scheme of things," Sonia Pombo, a researcher at Queen Mary University of London and head of research at Action on Salt and &a"

"A bit of me wanted to hate it, to be overwhelmed by its salt content and find it unpalatable. But it was fantastic. You certainly know the salt is there - but taste-wise it hit the spot and you realise why salt is added to our food. I didn't finish it though, but there was no shortage of volunteers back in the newsroom to help me out."

A sarnie sold by a bakery chain contains 6.88g of salt, exceeding the UK recommended daily limit of 6g and the World Health Organization cap of 5g. The sandwich is described as large and calorie-dense, with bacon and salad plus smoked chicken and coleslaw. Despite the high salt content, the taste is reported as satisfying, reflecting why salt is added to food. Excess salt consumption is linked to preventable deaths globally, with an estimate of 1.7 million deaths per year. Sodium chloride is the chemical form of table salt, and the body needs small amounts of sodium for nerve communication and maintaining proper water balance.

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