According to Harvard University, the human body needs around 500mg of sodium a day to conduct nerve impulses, contract and relax muscles and maintain the proper balance of water and minerals. So what happens if you don’t get enough?

According to Dr Patel, not a lot would happen if you cut out table salt or seasoning food with salt yourself, as it’s very easy to hit your necessary intake of 500mg of sodium from eating a balanced diet that includes dairy, eggs, bread, cereals and sauces.

“However, if you are exercising a lot or heavily sweating – so losing more than you take in – you may find that you suffer from muscle cramps,” she says. “If you are doing a lot of endurance sport (such as training for a marathon) and finding you are cramping that might be an indicator that you’re a heavy salt sweater and that might be an indicator that you need to replace your salt as well as your fluid after exercise.

“But for the majority of the general public who are just going to the gym or running, they do not need to be worrying about replacing their salt after exercise.”

Too much salt is actually a bigger problem than not enough, points out Dr Patel. “Too much sodium is associated with a risk of high blood pressure, which can lead to a stroke,” she says. Too much salt can also lead to poor bone and brain health, and research published in the journal Circulation found high amounts of sodium can impact immunity by disrupting the respiratory chain too.

Salt: is sodium bad for you, and how much should you have?