Haliphagy is the consumption of an excessive amount of salt — from the Greek hals (salt) and phagein (to eat). While salt is essential — the body needs sodium for nerve function and fluid balance — habitual excess is among the most damaging dietary patterns: it raises blood pressure, driving strokes and heart disease, and high-salt diets are implicated in stomach cancer and kidney strain. Modern processed foods make haliphagy easy and often unconscious — bread, cheese, cured meats, and ready meals deliver most of the salt in Western diets, not the salt cellar. Public health campaigns press for gradual reduction across the food supply, since palates adapt to less salt within weeks.