My mother was the favorite cook at the nursing home where she worked. The reason, salt (which she wasn’t suppose to use by the rules).
I’ve noticed that many countries which are thought to eat healthier diets, such as Japan, or the Mediterranean countries, also tend to use quite a bit of salt cured and pickled (naturally, with salt) foods. AFAIK, salt is really only a problem if you have (probably hereditary) high blood pressure.
There is an issue with salt content in many processed foods, though - you can hardly believe how much there is in a lot of them, despite the fact that they don’t seem to be particularly salty. You’d never add that much salt if you were cooking things yourself.