The truth about salt when you're cutting back on alcohol
Under 2 g of sodium a day is the target — and it's a lot harder to hit than most people think. Here's why it matters in recovery, and the five foods that quietly wreck the number.
Most people don't think about salt when they're getting sober. They should.
Heavy alcohol use damages the kidneys' ability to regulate sodium and water. It thickens the blood, raises blood pressure, and — in anyone with even mild liver scarring — pushes fluid out of the bloodstream and into the abdomen and ankles. This is why ascites (fluid in the belly) and peripheral oedema (swollen ankles) show up so often in patients coming off years of drinking.
The single biggest lever you have to control this at home is salt intake.
The number
The WHO target for adults is less than 5 g of salt per day — that's roughly 2 g of sodium. For anyone in liver recovery, most hepatologists tighten this further to:
Under 2 g of sodium (≈ 5 g of salt) per day, ideally lower.
The average UK adult eats more than 8 g of salt a day. Australians and Americans, more than 9 g.
Most of that is not from the salt shaker.
The five silent salt bombs
These are the foods that make hitting the target hard even when you think you're being careful:
- Bread. A single slice of most supermarket bread is 400 mg of sodium. Two slices with lunch and you're already at a quarter of the daily budget.
- Cheese. Feta, halloumi, blue, aged cheddar — a 30 g portion can be 300–500 mg. Cottage cheese and mozzarella are lower.
- Sauces. Soy sauce (1 g per tablespoon), ketchup (150 mg), bottled dressings, marinades, gravy granules.
- Cured meat. Bacon, ham, salami, chorizo, prosciutto — all north of 1 g of sodium per 100 g.
- Ready meals & tinned soup. Even the "healthy" ones. Read the back of the pack, not the front.
What "under 2 g" actually looks like
A day that hits both 140 g of protein and under 2 g of sodium on £4 or so:
| Meal | Item | Sodium |
|---|---|---|
| Breakfast | 4 boiled eggs, oats, banana | 200 mg |
| Snack | Greek yoghurt, berries | 80 mg |
| Lunch | Tuna in spring water (not brine), brown rice, cucumber, olive oil | 350 mg |
| Snack | Small handful of unsalted almonds | 5 mg |
| Dinner | Grilled chicken thigh, potatoes, steamed broccoli, lemon, pepper | 300 mg |
| Evening | 250 ml milk | 105 mg |
| Total | ≈ 1,040 mg |
The trick: no bread, no cheese, no bottled sauces, tuna in water not brine, herbs and citrus instead of salt. It sounds austere; it isn't after two weeks.
How Anchor helps
- The Diet Tracker salt ring turns amber above 2 g and red above 3 g. You see the number climb before you finish the day, not after.
- The AI meal planner avoids high-salt suggestions by default — every recipe it generates includes an estimated sodium number.
- The food-label scanner parses the nutrition panel of any packet in the shop — hold your phone up, hit the target, decide.
- The weekly PDF to your doctor shows a salt trend line so your GP or hepatologist can catch drift.
The wider point
Salt is the number no one warns you about. Get it under 2 g and the swelling drops, the blood pressure drops, and the anxious 4 am wake-ups drop with it.
Log the salt. Watch what changes.
Educational, not medical advice. If you have ascites, hypertension, or take diuretics, always follow your clinician's specific sodium target.