One only has to look into history - where there have been epidemics and people have died from lacking salt in their diet in various salt-deficient places. As a

One only has to look into history - where there have been epidemics and people have died from lacking salt in their diet in various salt-deficient places. As an aside, there's also a reason that iodine is required to be added to salt and various stable products in some countries. Animals seek salt because they need it, as did ancient humans to the present day, saying humans need salt is like saying humans need water, or protein, or vitamin B. It's not like salt is some new chemical we know nothing about - we've known about it for at least 10,000 years (probably longer). It's nice and all that now we know you should have between 3000 and 6000 mg per day (which is higher than what agencies recommend, but apparently around the average consumption in many places anyway), but come on... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyponatremia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyponatremia Also, there's a reason athletes drink liquids with electrolytes in them (salt is one) - because the effects of a deficiency of salt and other electrolytes is known...