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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Reduce consumption of sodium by people aged 2 years and over — NWS‑12

Status: Improving

  
Improving
Learn more about our data release schedule

Most Recent Data:
3,346 milligrams (mg) (2017-20) *

Target:
2,731 mg 1  *

Desired Direction:
Decrease desired

Baseline:
3,414 milligrams (mg) of sodium from foods and beverages was the mean total daily intake by persons aged 2 years and over in 2013-16 2 *

*  Age adjusted to the year 2000 standard population.

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Reduce the consumption of sodium by persons aged 2 years and over

Target-Setting Method
Percent improvement

Data Source:  National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), CDC/NCHS

Learn more about data measurement for this objective

Summary

Eating a lot of salt (sodium) may increase the risk of high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. And most people in the United States eat too much salt. Strategies that involve both population-level interventions (like reducing the amount of salt in packaged foods) and individual-level interventions (like behavioral counseling) seem to be the most effective ways to help people eat less salt. Encouraging people to use the Nutrition Facts label can also help them track their consumption of salt.

Topic:  Nutrition and Healthy Eating

Workgroup: Nutrition and Weight Status Workgroup

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1. Target has been revised. See Data Methodology and Measurement for more information.

2. Baseline has been revised. See Data Methodology and Measurement for more information.