How to convert sodium to salt (and salt to sodium)

Nutritionists suggest we cut back on salt but it's sodium you'll see listed on food labels and on any recommended daily intakes. So what's the difference and how can you convert sodium into salt? And vice versa?

Two ways to convert

Use our quick converter table or the handy rules.

1. Quick sodium and salt converter table

So 5 grams of salt is equal to 2000mg of sodium, both of which are contained in one teaspoon of salt.
If a recipe calls for one teaspoon of salt and serves 4 people, you're getting one-quarter of a teaspoon of salt from it or around 500mg sodium.

2. Rules

To convert the sodium to salt or salt to sodium, use these rules:

Sodium to salt

To convert sodium to salt, multiply the sodium figure in milligrams (mg) by 2.5 and then divide by 1,000. So:
millgrams of sodium X 2.5 = milligrams of salt ÷ 1,000

Example
200mg of sodium
200mg x 2.5 = 500mg salt ...  then divided by 1,000 = 0.5 grams salt
So 200mg of sodium equates to 500milligrams or 0.5 grams of salt

Salt to sodium

To convert grams of salt to milligrams of sodium, divide the salt figure in grams by 2.5 and then multiply by 1,000 to get milligrams. So
grams of salt ÷ 2.5 = grams of sodium X 1,000

Example
6 grams of salt
6g ÷ 2.5 = 2.4g salt ... then multiplied by 1,000 = 2400 mg of sodium
So 6 g of salt equates to 2400 milligrams of sodium

A little chemistry

Chemically salt is sodium chloride which is made up of one molecule of sodium plus one molecule of chloride. While half the salt molecule is sodium, it's not half by weight. So you can't just halve the weight of salt to find your sodium intake. Sodium is roughly 40 per cent of the weight of salt, with chloride the remaining 60 per cent.

In tiny quantities, both sodium and chloride are essential for health and growth. The problem today is we eat way too much sodium. For more background and tips to reduce your salt intake, click here.

How much sodium is too much?

Our sodium intake should be less than 2300mg per day, roughly a teaspoon (or 6 grams) of salt. Ideally, getting your sodium to less than 1600mg per day is even better as it can help prevent ill health later in life. We suggest you use the mid-point figure of 2000mg sodium as a convenient figure to remember.

But the average daily intake is somewhere between 6 to 12 grams of salt (or 6000 to 12 000 milligrams) which roughly equates to 2 300 to 4 600 milligrams of sodium. So we're consuming double the amount we need.

Sodium - what's low?

Less than 120mg sodium per 100grams. See the figure of 110mg per 100g in the right hand column of a food label at left.

Low-salt foods are unsalted foods such as unsalted butter, canned bakedn beans or canned tomatoes with no added salt and fresh produce like vegetables, fruits, nuts, milk, fish, meat, eggs, oils, rice and other unprocessed grains.

Sodium - what's high?

More than 600mg sodium per 100grams
But this can vary from food category to category eg for bread, any bread under 400mg is considered acceptable; for salty sauces, anything under 1000mg is a good achievement.

Other forms of sodium apart from salt

A food may contain NO salt (sodium chloride) but may still be high in sodium because of the presence of naturally-occurring sodium (as in celery or spinach) or other sodium containing ingredients and additives such as:

Compare high, medium and lower salt foods

Look at these three categories of compare a similar category food in the high, medium and low category eg corn flakes (highest in salt) vs weet-bix (medium) vs oats (lower).

Figures taken from food labels as at 2011

* We have classed these items as "low" compared to other products. However, some of these do not meet the official government definition of less than 120 mg per 100g.
However they are all under 400mg per 100g.