[jdkuepper]

I think it's important to look beyond hypertension before completely ending the war on salt.

Very high salt intake may influence the risk of H. pylori infection - the main cause of stomach cancer. It increases the risk of atrophic gastritis (chronic inflammation of the stomach), which makes the stomach more prone to infection, and increases the susceptibility of mucosa to neoplastic change once an infection occurs.

If you think nobody consumes this level of salt, the Chinese and Japanese had extremely high levels of stomach cancer decades ago before reducing their salt intake and preservative consumption. To some extent, these problems persist to this day. Completely ignoring salt (especially in convenience foods) could reignite the issue.

[drumdance]

> (especially in convenience foods)

I think this is the key. Most salty processed foods have enormous amounts of salt that you'd never add if you were cooking it yourself. Same with sugar in sweet snacks.