The replacement of regular salt with a salt substitute can reduce incidences of hypertension, or high blood pressure, in older adults without increasing their risk of low blood pressure episodes, according to a recent study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. People who used a salt substitute had a 40% lower incidence and likelihood of experiencing hypertension compared to those who used regular salt.
According to the World Health Organization, hypertension is the leading risk factor for cardiovascular disease and mortality. It affects over 1.4 billion adults and results in 10.8 million deaths per year worldwide. One of the most effective ways to reduce hypertension risk is to reduce sodium intake. This study looks at salt substitutes as a better solution to control and maintain healthy blood pressure than reducing salt alone.
“Adults frequently fall into the trap of consuming excess salt through easily accessible and budget-friendly processed foods,” said Yangfeng Wu, MD, Ph.D., lead author of the study and Executive Director of Peking University Clinical Research Institute in Beijing, China. “It’s crucial to recognize the impact of our dietary choices on heart health and increase the public’s awareness of lower-sodium options.”
Taste issues aside, I believe that MSG still contains significant amounts of sodium, which is the issue with salt.
Molecule for molecule, it contains the exact same amount of sodium.
Edit: this is true but misleading; MSG is a heavier molecule and thus, measuring by weight as you do when cooking, 100 grams of MSG does contain significantly less sodium than 100 grams of table salt.
I’ve read that MSG has lower sodium content.
For MSG, the amount of sodium is 12.28 g/100 g, and this is 1/3 of the sodium when compared to NaCl (39.34 g/100 g)
source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5694874/
Per unit mass, yes, which is actually the relevant way to measure it in a culinary context. 100 molecules of table salt contain 100 Sodium atoms, just as MSG does, its formula being C5H8NO4Na. MSG is obviously a more complex and heavier molecule though, so if you’re measuring by mass, 100 grams of MSG contains (apparently 1/3) fewer molecules of C5H8NO4Na than 100 grams of NaCl.
My bad there, was stuck in chemistry brain.
I’m also not sure about the relative quantities that you would use between the two. Even if you could use MSG as a salt substitute, would you be using more or less than you would salt?