Worrying about too much sodium

[TheBluntCrab]

I've recently started a new diet, with team RH. It's going well and I'm hitting ally goals. But I've just been found through my food diary this week and I noticed that my sodium is massive, ranging from 2000-4000mg a day. As a very very overweight person with a lot to lose, and I'm conscious that I'm morbidly obese already and this can't be good for me. Today I've had 2800 mg of sodium. I know the recommended amount is no more than 6g a day.. I'm worrying that I'm seriously harming my health even further. Will it be okay? Been reading horror stories on Google of course of side effects of too much or too little salt. I've dug my own grave cos I'm worried I'm gonna have a stroke or something now.. I don't add salt to food when cooking, but I do eat quite a lot of ham, pickled foods, etc. How can I cut down and what foods should I be incorporating to help lower this amount. I really want to get healthy and lower my risks/possibly undo the damage I've already done to my body.

2000mg is 2grams. 4000mg is 4grams.

If the recommended level is less that 6grams then you're ok?

Having said that, the recommeded level is less than 6grams so yeah, cut back things like processed food like ham?

1000 mg = 1 g.

you are well under the maximum sodium intake you are quoting.

I dont know if I'm being thick and I can't explain to Google what i want to tell me. Is the level of sodium and salt the same? So they say 6g of salt is recommended but is that the same as 6g of sodium? Like is there a conversion rate or something? And if he had too much say this week, have I put my health even more at risk or is it a massive amount of sodium over a very long period of time that causes the damage?

Adults should eat less than 6 grams of salt per day. This is the daily intake of salt recommended by the UK Government. 6 grams of salt is about one level teaspoon.

Some food labels call salt, sodium instead. Salt and sodium are measured differently. Adults should have less than 2.5 grams of sodium per day.

https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/support/healthy-living/healthy-eating/salt

Ahhhh so, the 6g of salt that's recommended equates to 2.5g of sodium, this 2500mg?

You would multiply a sodium value by 2.5 to get the salt content. If you've had 2800 mg of sodium you'd multiple that by 2.5 to get mg of salt; 2800 x 2.5 = 7000mg = 7g of salt