Most of us eat far too much salt and this is bad for our health – it can raise your blood pressure, increasing the risk of heart disease and strokes. So, most of us would be healthier if we ate less salt.

About 75% of the salt we eat comes from processed foods (with 10-15% added by ourselves and 10-15% naturally present) and calculating how much salt you eat from processed foods is quite difficult. However, by cooking your own meals you can gain more control over the amount of salt you and your family eat. This is one of the reasons why we have produced this book.

You will notice that none of the recipe’s in this book use salt and if you are used to using lots of salt you might initially find some of the recipe’s a bit bland and tasteless. But don’t worry, your taste buds will quickly get used to this and you will eventually start enjoying your food more – so please stick with it!

Daily recommended maximum for children and adults (total salt including salt already contained in processed foods):-

1-3 years 2 grammes of salt a day
4-6 years 3 grammes of salt a day
7-10years 5 grammes of salt a day
11 – adult 6 grammes of salt a day
6 grammes of salt is about 1 teaspoon

Babies only need less than 1 gramme a day and they will get this from breast or formula milk. Any extra salt is very dangerous.