The Scoop on Sodium

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How Taste Buds Are Changing

Manufacturers have launched many lower-sodium foods over the past 30 years, but they often don’t sell well. For example, when Campbell Soup Co. launched low-sodium soups 20 years ago, most were taken off the market in less than a year. Only a few remain on store shelves.

It generally takes a few months to adjust to eating less salt, says Susan Schiffman, Ph.D., a taste specialist at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

Here’s why:

When you consume a lot of salt, some is excreted in your saliva. To taste the salt in your food, you have to consume more sodium than is in your saliva. At first, low-salt foods may taste bland.

See basic sodium swaps you can make on food purchases.