I like eating salt straight from the salt cellar, but my mum says it’s bad for me. But if it’s bad for me, why do I like it?
• Like many things, salt is only bad in excess. Too little salt also causes health problems. Because salt was in relatively scarce supply away from the coast, early humans typically suffered more from a lack of salt than from too much of it. Hence our ancestors acquired a strong craving in order to make them seek it out. Many other animals also go to great lengths to seek out salt licks…
