Sodium: Sodium and your health

Learn about sodium and how it affects your health.

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About sodium

Sodium is a mineral that is found in food and in table salt. You need some sodium to stay healthy. Sodium:

Too much sodium may lead to high blood pressure, which is a major risk factor for developing:

Sodium is added to many foods during processing. It adds flavour and is used as a preservative. 

Most people in Canada eat too much sodium. You can eat less sodium by limiting highly processed foods

Sources of sodium

Most of the sodium found in our diet is added to foods during processing.

The top sources of sodiumFootnote 1 in our diet are:

We published updated voluntary sodium reduction targets for processed foods to encourage the food industry to reduce the amount of sodium in prepackaged foods.

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Footnotes

Footnote 1

These foods aren’t listed in order of importance.

Return to footnote 1 referrer

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