SUMMARY:  This post is all about the salt controversy and discusses Salt: How much, Autoimmunity, Microbiome, Blood Pressure, Probiotic & Iodine Deficiency.   In sum, studies now show salt limits that are within a moderate salt consumption range (providing between 2,645 to 4,945 mg sodium per day), reduces the risk of death or a serious event such as a heart attack or stroke and below or above these limits has increased risk of such.  Note: Salt intake is not the same as sodium intake. About 6 gms of salt provides 2,500 milligrams of sodium.  Studies now show autoimmunity associations with ordinary table salt through Th17 releasing up to 10x more cytokines when exposed to refined salt. Relative to microbiome and blood pressure, [Wilck et al 2017] found that salt decimates lactobacilli in the microbiome (lactic acid bacteria which influences immune cells responsible for autoimmunity and hypertension), increased blood pressure, and increased the number of TH17 helper cells.  Ingestion of a probiotic lactobacilli mitigated the TH17 increase and decreased the BP.  Last, some groups have borderline iodine deficiency whereas other groups are high (children).  Also included is how much salt do we really eat and a heads up:  Those eating a Whole Foods diet may not be getting enough salt to be in that optimal bell curve range (between 2.645 to 4,945 mg sodium per day) because they don’t consume processed foods, which is where most of the salt Americans ingest comes from (not to mention those also contain other gut harming food-like substances).