Too much salt can be very damaging to your health
Reducing salt intake must become a priority for the UN, according to UK scientists.
Writing in the British Medical Journal they say a 15 per cent cut in consumption could save 8.5 million lives around the world over the next decade.
The reports - by researchers at the Universities of Warwick and Liverpool - says that practical steps must be drawn up to reduce consumption and if voluntary methods are unsucessful, then food companies should be compelled to cut salt levels.
The consequences of eating to much salt vary from the minor, such as water weight gain, to the major such as high blood pressure - which can then lead to heart disease, stroke and kidney problems.
If you eat more than 2,400 mg of salt daily, then you are eating too much - this equates to one teaspoon daily.
So not only should you put away the salt shaker, but you should pay attention to how much salt you put in whilst preparing your food, especially looking at those which come pre-prepared.
The report says that after cutting tabacco consumption, getting people to eat less salt would be the most cost effective way to improve global health.
They look specifically at teh US, where cutting salt intake by a third would save tens of thousands of lives and save up to $24 billion annually in health care costs.
But with 70 per cent of deaths from strokes and heart attacks occurring in developing countries, the report says the impact of reduced intake would be global.
Femalefirst Taryn Davies