My guiltiest pleasure is pretty alarmingly unhealthy. I don't do it very often, but the occasional Saturday morning I will stealthily creep into the nearest McDonald's and devour two hash browns, an extra packet of salt on each one.

I prefer salty over sweet most of the time. It's a guilty pleasure, because we're continually being bombarded by messages about the evils of salt, but really, why is it so evil?

Though the reasons for it aren't clear, high-salt diets can cause high blood pressure, which is a risk for heart and kidney disease as well as stroke. The average American consumes two teaspoons of salt a day. A half teaspoon is recommended for healthy adults.

Experts say that the key to cutting salt from our diets is not to eliminate the salt shaker over those fresh-picked tomatoes. Rather, most of our sodium comes from processed and restaurant foods. And, some salty foods are not as they appear: Cheerios, for example, have more salt than Ruffles potato chips per serving.

That's good to know. So maybe I'll have to give up my McDonald's, but at least I can keep my occasional salt sprinkles.

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