The Cordain school says to limit salt, but I have so many problems with his views (low sat fat/high veg/no dairy) - that I take it "with a grain of salt". My very limited understanding is that it is not so much how much salt (unless you go way overboard) as it is the sodium/potassium balance. These are your electrolytes, and cellular function is much improved when they are in balance. The problem is that most people don't get enough potassium (or magnesium for that matter).

If you are tracking sodium intake, vary it and see how your blood pressure responds. Blood pressure should increase somewhat due to fructose/alcohol increasing uric acid - so I would watch that too. Also being overweight adds to blood pressure, as does stress and inflammation.

Personally, I am an obese T2 diabetic, with all the symptons of Metabolic Syndrome. I watch the fruit and alcohol (although I still drink) and use Lite salt which is half potassium chloride. I also take 99mg of potassium citrate 4x per day. I tried the low sodium bacon, but my wife doesn't like it. My blood pressure is consistently 5 points lower now that I've lost over 30 pounds. I've also stopped my blood pressure meds and its just borderline high now.

As always, YMMV.

I eat salt, but it is not SODIUM CHLORIDE, it is the unrefined sea salt, Sel de Guerande. It is grey and wet, comes in large flakes and is very beneficial to health of the body.

Here is a great page detailing many of its benefits from CureZone.

I use it for cooking and add it to things such as eggs at the table. As it is a 100% natural product and all the minerals it contains are readily bio-available to the body (which means it is totally able to be assimilated without any harm whatsoever of over dose), I feel there is no need to measure it at all.

This is the best advice I can give you, and I am a bacon addict, so I know your pain in wondering if you are slowly killing yourself with the sodium additives.

1. Find a pasture based farmer who raises pork
2. Ask him if he sells if fresh/frozen, no additives (which is most likely true)
3. Ask him if he only sells it sliced or if he has slab belly as well
4. Buy said slab belly or sliced (but slab is cheaper) and section it for freezing
5. Fry with your own measured amount of salt.
6. Save bacon grease.

I have never measured actual sodium intake. I do though simply use the salt shaker judiciously. By that i mean that yes i do try and limit my salt usage.

I don't think its bad in the way that I've heard Cordain lecture about but in my prepaleo days i did indeed use a LOT LOT of salt and retained water in my ankles, fingers, and knees. It was seriously uncomfortable and that feeling always stays with my in my memories so i just don't go too hardcore with salt.

However i think for already healthy, fit people salt-usage is NOT an issue. Caveat: assuming one used the good stuff.

Also, jsyk the salt im referring to, even in my prepaleo days, was always good quality sea salt. I dropped the SAD iodized stuff prolly ten years ago.

I do not have added salt, and do not have bacon, either, because of its high sodium content. I follow Cordains ideas: natural foods have enough sodium on their own!

I think salt is only relevant in that it creates temporary bouts of hypertension which may push the already hypertensive across some threshold into dangerous territory. For a healthy paleo-adherent with no cardiovascular health issues and an adequate intake of water, it seems like a salted red herring.

I don't track my sodium consumption (or really care to), but it seems to me that when I use low-sodium salt about half the time, my blood pressure is lower (I know this because of frequent prenatals and other doctor's visits recently). Could easily be placebo effect, I suppose, but whatever works! High blood pressure, obesity, and diabetes also run in my family, so I keep on top of my readings.