I've seen articles that cite the Japanese stroke statistics and conclude that even though we haven't identified causality, and neither the circumstances nor result have been replicated anywhere else, that we should act as though salt is uniformly dangerous for everyone.

We've spent decades demonizing saturated fat, and it turns out the human body needs some in the diet to work properly. We need salt, too, and the most compelling argument (IMO) against the amount of salt we use is the historical: We didn't evolve eating this much salt.

But are we sure of that? Salt is pretty durable, and light. We've found evidence that people were harvesting salt thousands of years ago from various sources. Maybe early humans would collect salt when they found it and carry it with them. What evidence would be left behind? Not much.

I'm definitely not saying there's no possible risk to eating too much salt. I just don't think there's really strong science saying how much we "should" be eating.

Like with every other recommendation based on nutritionism, simply avoiding processed foods seems to make the whole issue moot.