Daily Sodium Limit & Label Helper
Pick a daily sodium cap and watch it fill in real time
Daily sodium limits, labels and safety FAQ
Where do the 1500 mg and 2300 mg limits come from?
Many heart and public health groups suggest adults keep sodium below about 2300 mg/day, with a lower target near 1500 mg/day for some higher-risk groups such as people with high blood pressure. Those numbers line up with global advice to stay under roughly 2000 mg/day of sodium from all sources.
Is this telling me what my medical limit should be?
No. This page is a tracking helper, not a prescription. It lets you pick a limit and see how fast you approach it. Your actual target should come from your doctor, heart team or dietitian, especially if you have heart, kidney or blood pressure issues.
How do I find sodium on food labels?
On most Nutrition Facts labels there is a line for sodium (mg) per serving plus a % of a reference daily value. Use the mg number here. Remember that if you eat more than one serving, you need to multiply the mg and the %.
What about sodium in restaurant or takeaway food?
Some chains list mg of sodium per dish on menus or websites. If they do, use that number in the log. If they don’t, you can add a rough guess and label it so you know it is an estimate rather than an exact figure.
Does this calculator handle salt substitutes?
No. It treats the sodium number you enter as if it were from regular salt. If you use potassium-rich salt substitutes, you still need to count the actual sodium mg listed and talk with your care team about whether those substitutes are safe for you, especially with kidney disease.
Is going far under 1500 mg/day always better?
Not always. Very low sodium intakes may not be right for everyone, especially if you take certain medicines or have specific health problems. The safest move is to work with your doctor on a range that fits your blood pressure, heart, kidneys and lifestyle, then use a tool like this to keep an eye on your intake.
Can I use this for children’s sodium limits?
This page is written for adults. Children usually need lower sodium caps that scale with their size and energy needs. Use child-specific guidance from your paediatrician or dietitian instead of these adult presets.
How to use this daily sodium limit and label helper
This helper turns abstract sodium limits into a simple daily cap, a running total and a % bar you can glance at. Instead of only seeing a scary number after a lab result, you see how much of your limit each salty meal or packaged food uses up across the day.
1. Pick a daily cap that matches your plan
Start by choosing one of the presets or entering your own mg value. Many adults use 2300 mg/day as a basic cap or 1500 mg/day if their care team wants a tighter limit. If your doctor has given you a different number, type that into the daily limit box so the % matches your real plan.
2. Log foods using the sodium in mg
Each time you eat or drink something salty, check the sodium line on the label or menu. Enter a short name like “breakfast sandwich” or “instant noodles” and the sodium in mg for the amount you actually ate, then hit Add to today’s sodium log. The item is added to the list and the totals update.
3. Watch total, % of limit and what you have left
After each entry, the summary shows:
- Your chosen daily sodium limit in mg.
- How many mg you have used so far today.
- Your % of the daily cap and how many mg are left if you stayed at that limit.
That makes it easy to see, for example, that one salty lunch pushed you to 70% of your target before dinner rather than finding out later.
4. Copy the summary to share or track
Tap Copy summary to paste your sodium day into a notes app, spreadsheet or a message to your care team. The text includes your limit, total, % and the log of items so you do not need to rewrite it by hand.
5. Use what you learn to tweak your go-to foods
Over a few days, patterns stand out. You may notice that certain soups, sauces, cured meats or snacks chew through a big chunk of your daily limit. You can then swap them for lower-sodium brands, smaller portions, or different meals that keep flavour but use less salt-heavy ingredients.
If you ever feel unsure about how strict your cap should be, bring your saved logs to your next appointment and let your doctor or dietitian adjust the target. This tool is there to support their plan, not replace it.
How the daily sodium and % of limit math works
The math behind this helper is deliberately simple so you can follow it with a basic calculator. It keeps everything in milligrams of sodium per day, the same units you see on most labels.
1. Picking a daily sodium cap
Public health groups often suggest adults keep sodium below roughly 2000–2300 mg/day, with some advice to aim lower, around 1500 mg/day, for people at higher risk of heart and blood pressure problems. The presets on this page are just shortcuts to those common caps; you can still type in any other limit your own team recommends.
2. Adding up sodium from foods
Every time you add an item, the helper adds the mg for that item to a running total. If you log 650 mg at breakfast, 900 mg at lunch and 400 mg from snacks, the total becomes 1950 mg for the day so far. There is no special weighting: it is straight mg added together.
3. Turning mg into % of your daily limit
The % of limit is just:
% of limit = (total sodium ÷ daily limit) × 100
So if your cap is 2300 mg and your log shows 1150 mg, that is roughly 50% of your daily limit. The helper also subtracts to show how many mg are left if you were aiming to stay at that cap.
4. Why all the numbers are rounded
Label values are already approximate and serving sizes in real life are rarely perfect. The helper rounds to whole mg and whole % so you can think in rough chunks like “about half my limit” or “less than a quarter left” instead of tiny decimal differences that won’t matter to your day-to-day choices.
Because blood pressure, medicine and kidney function all affect how your body handles sodium, treat these numbers as guide rails. If your doctor or heart team wants you on a different cap or pattern, follow their instructions first and use the log to help you stick to that plan.
References and further reading on daily sodium intake
These resources explain common 1500–2300 mg/day sodium caps and global 2000 mg/day limits:
- American Heart Association — How much sodium should I eat per day? — outlines a daily maximum of 2300 mg, with an ideal goal of 1500 mg/day for most adults.
- U.S. FDA — Sodium in your diet — explains why the Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend keeping sodium under 2300 mg/day for adults.
- World Health Organization — Sodium reduction — recommends adults limit sodium to less than 2000 mg/day (about 5 g of salt) to reduce cardiovascular risk.
Use these as background reading, then set your own daily cap in this tool based on individual advice from your healthcare team.