A major reason to cut salt/sodium is blood pressure reduction.
Elsewhere on the forum its been reported that a recent low carb/orlistat trial showed a bigger reduction in blood pressure in the low carb arm than with the orlistat arm. In the same journal there is another study that puts that reduction in perspective.
In the Dash trial, the subjects were un medicated, overweight people with high blood pressure. One arm ate the Dash diet + weight management ie reduced calories + exercise, the other just followed the diet . For once in diet trials there was a control group (hurrah). In 4 months the people on the weight management version lost an average of 19lbs ( compared with 1 on the non weight control version)
Blood pressure reductions
in 4 months
Dash + weight management
systolic - 16.1, diastolic 9.9mm
Dash alone ....................
systolic -11.2, diastolic -7.5mm
control.........................
systolic -3.4, diastolic -3.8mm
By comparison
In 48 weeks
Low carb.......................
systolic -5.9, diastolic -4.5mm
Orlistat........................
systolic -1.5 diastolic - 0.4mm
Obviously the time periods are different, as are the subjects, so it's not a completey valid comparison but the drop in blood pressure in the Dash diet trials seems to be a worth while reduction for many people with moderately high blood pressure.
The Dash diet though is definitely not a low carb diet and this poses a conflict for some people on this forum.
However anyone with high blood pressure might like to take into consideration that the Dash diet is designed to be a very low sodium diet (not just table salt but from all sources, (see Catherines links above) starting from a maximum 2.4mg a day and reducing when ''acclimatised' to 1.5mg a day.
I don't know how much of the reduction in BP in this diet is due to the sodium reduction and how much to do with its other components* but the salt reduction is perhaps something everyone on whatever diet can try.
*fairly specific proportions of fruit, veg, wholegrain,poultry fish, nuts; high in magnesium, potassium, and calcium, limited fat and red meat
http://www.webmd.com/hypertension-high- ... /dash-diet