Sodium and potassium intakes and excretions of normal men consuming sodium chloride or a 1:1 mixture of sodium and potassium chlorides.

Two groups of 10 healthy young men were matched on the basis of their free-choice consumptions of regular table salt. For 28 days they were then fed carefully controlled low-sodium foods. One group was permitted free-choice seasoning of these foods with regular table salt, the other with a 1:1 mixture of sodium and potassium chlorides. Intakes and urinary and fecal excretions of sodium and potassium were determined by analysis. The results were: 1) the subjects salted their food with essentially the same amounts of regular table salt as of the 1:1 mixture; 2) the sodium intake associated with seasoning at the table was reduced with the 1:1 mixture to 44 percent of the amount consumed with regular table salt; and 3) over a 28-day period there was no tendency for subjects to increase their use of a 1:1 mixture, when used in place of regular table salt, to compensate for their reduced sodium intakes. Under the conditions of this study, the use of the 1:1 mixture as a seasoning agent for foods that contained no added salt resulted in an average total intake of sodium (food plus seasoning) which was 55 percent that of the subjects using regular table salt.