6 Minute English from BBC Learning English.com

Hello this is 6 minute English from BBC learning English. I'm Neil and I'm

George. Do you know the five tastes which give

food its flavor Neil? There's sweet? Yes and sour, bitter. And salty. Everyone knows that salt makes food taste better by enhancing the

flavours of the ingredients. There's even a phrase you'll see in many recipes

add a pinch of salt.

But exactly how much salt makes a pinch of salt.

The World Health Organization, or WHO, recommends a daily salt intake of less than 5 grams,

about the same as a teaspoon.

In fact, the human body needs salt

at least one gram a day to survive.

But most of us eat far too much, increasing the risk of high blood pressure

and heart disease.

In this program, we'll be asking how much salt is too much, and as usual, we'll be learning some useful new vocabulary as well.

Great, but first I have a question for you, Neil.

The reason it's difficult to know how much salt you consume is that it's hidden in food,

especially processed food. So which of the following everyday foods do you think contains most

salt? Is it A, meat, B, bread or C pasta? Well I'm going to guess

that meat is the saltiest of those foods. Okay, I'll reveal the answer later in the program.

Marion Sambiva lives in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, a country where people eat on average

17 grams of salt a day.

That's more than three times the amount recommended by the WHO.

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