You may have read reports online over the weekend that Health Canada's sodium advisory group says we need to cut our daily salt intake by one third, from about 3,400 milligrams to 2,300 milligrams daily (that's about a teaspoon of salt a day, max). Sounds good to me. I'll just put away the saltshaker, right? Hmm . . . turns out that's not going to cut it. In an editorial on Friday, A Roadmap to Less Salt, the Toronto Star reported:

Canadians are putting themselves at risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke and other ailments by consuming more than twice the recommended intake of salt. But the culprit is not the shaker on the kitchen table. More than three-quarters of the salt we consume is added by the food industry during processing, long before dinner gets to anyone’s table.

And a Thursday editorial in the Globe and Mail, We're in a Pinch Over Salt, had this to say:

Reducing salt is the single best approach to saving lives, preventing disability and trimming billions of dollars from the health-care system. "The vast bulk of the burden of cardiovascular disease is preventable through a single, inexpensive, cost-effective measure – primarily, through a strategy to reduce consumption of dietary salt across the population,” the Public Health Agency of Canada says. Reducing salt intake would do as much for the heart as a reduction in obesity or cholesterol, or the decline in cigarette use. But Canadians can't reduce salt in their diets on their own; 77 per cent of salt intake is from processed foods. They need the government to show leadership.

So in addition to putting away the saltshaker, we need to cut down on processed foods. That means cooking from scratch at home more often and carefully checking the sodium content on your groceries' nutrition information label. We're here to help

• Here are 44 things you can do with salt (besides eating it).
• Here are over 8,000 delish recipes you can make from scratch at home.
• And here's a fab and easy contest where you can WIN a collection of 10 McCormick Gourmet spices to help you spice up your food without reaching for the salt shaker:

For your chance to WIN, just Subscribe To This Blog and post a reply telling us about how you plan to cut down on your salt intake. You have until Tuesday, August 17 to let us know. I'll announce the winner here on Wednesday, September 8.