Sodium—Potassium Chloride Mixtures as Table Salt

Abstract

Mixtures of sodium and potassium chlorides provide a possible replacement for ordinary salt as a therapeutic adjunct in the treatment of hypertension and other conditions requiring a sodium-restricted diet. Such mixtures are palatable and very similar in saltiness to equal weights of sodium chloride. Sodium chloride appears to mask the bitter, disagreeable flavor of potassium chloride. Although the mixtures still contain sodium and for that reason cannot be considered “salt substitutes,” they may prove useful as dietary supplements since a) present salt substitutes are unsatisfactory from the taste standpoint, and b) the introduction of thiazides has obviated the necessity of drastic sodium restriction for most hypertensive patients. Mixtures of sodium and potassium chlorides are much alike in physical properties and are superficially indistinguishable from common salt. They can be used in industrial food processing as well as in the preparation of food in the home and as table salt. The extra intake of potassium resulting from the use of mixtures of sodium and potassium chlorides should pose no nutritional or physiological problems. The amount of potassium thus added to the diet under ordinary conditions does not bring the total intake beyond normal limits. Potassium chloride, when taken orally, is almost nontoxic since large doses of the compound are absorbed only slowly from the gastrointestinal tract. It is also readily excreted, even by kidneys damaged by nephritis. Additionally, there is mounting evidence that potassium supplements may ameliorate hypertension and that decreasing the dietary sodium-to-potassium ratio may be as important as decreasing the sodium intake.