For many people, eating without salt is hard to imagine.

The average German eats two teaspoons of salt a day.

The World Health Organization says too much and recommends just under a teaspoon of salt a day.

But what happens in the body when we consume too much salt?

And why is it healthier if we turn down our hearty dose a little?

What happens when there is too much salt in the body?

Dr. Wolfgang Kreischer

, General

Practitioner [00:00:41] So an excess of salt over a longer period of time goes hand in hand with a volume storage of fluid in the body. That means you will have weight gain. If it persists longer, you may develop hypertension and simply be a little bloated.