What are the exact proportions (salt to water) in Dr Ania's salt trick recipe?
Executive summary
The viral “Dr Ania” pink salt trick does not have a single, authoritative salt-to-water ratio; instead, recipes circulating online typically call for a very small pinch of pink Himalayan salt dissolved in a glass of water—commonly reported amounts range from about 1/16 teaspoon up to 1/4 teaspoon per glass (roughly 8–12 ounces) of water [1] [2] [3]. Reporting also makes clear the trend is misattributed to Dr. Ania Jastreboff and lacks medical endorsement, so the proportions are community conventions rather than a published clinical recipe [4] [5].
1. What “the recipe” actually looks like in the wild
Social-media and blog versions of the pink salt trick almost always pair warm water with a small quantity of Himalayan pink salt (often plus lemon or honey) and present the drink as a morning ritual; multiple recipe roundups and firsthand writeups describe “a glass of warm water” with “a small amount” of salt, without a single standardized measurement across clips and posts [3] [6] [7].
2. Common numerical proportions reported by mainstream outlets
When publications quantify the trend, they typically land in the very small range: dietitians quoted by Today and similar outlets note recipes “vary, but most include around 1/4 teaspoon of salt,” and those same health writers point out that 1/4 teaspoon contains roughly 500 mg or more of sodium [1]. Other clinical-leaning pieces advise an even smaller amount—a “pinch” equated to about 1/16 teaspoon—to limit sodium exposure [2].
3. Why sources give different numbers
The discrepancy is rooted in the fact that the trick is a viral wellness hack rather than a peer-reviewed intervention; creators remix the idea (some use “sole water” techniques or overnight salt-soaks) and list different ratios depending on taste or claimed intensity, which leads to ranges rather than a single precise formula [8] [6]. BatchRecipes and similar recipe aggregators describe the drink as “a small amount of Himalayan pink salt in a glass of warm water,” underscoring that there is no one original lab-validated proportion [9] [3].
4. Safety context tied to the amounts reported
Health reporting stresses the sodium content matters: a quarter teaspoon of salt delivers a substantial portion of an adult’s daily sodium limit and can be problematic for people with hypertension; therefore conservative recommendations (a pinch ≈ 1/16 tsp) appear in clinical commentary to reduce potential harm [1] [2]. Yale’s public notes and Dr. Ania Jastreboff’s profile also flag the trend as misinformation and emphasize it is not a medically endorsed weight-loss method, which further cautions against treating any viral proportion as therapeutic guidance [5] [4].
5. What can be stated with confidence and what cannot
It can be stated confidently that no validated, single “Dr Ania” ratio exists in medical literature and that commonly cited community measurements cluster between about 1/16 and 1/4 teaspoon of pink salt per typical drinking glass (8–12 ounces) of water [1] [2] [3]. What cannot be claimed from the reporting is a definitive, clinician-approved salt:water ratio attributed to Dr. Ania Jastreboff—Yale and several fact-checks say she never endorsed the trick and some viral endorsements are AI-generated fakes [4] [5].
6. Practical takeaway for readers parsing proportions
For those replicating the trend, authoritative reporting and dietitians advise using the smallest cited measure (a pinch, ~1/16 tsp) if choosing to try it, and to consider underlying health risks tied to sodium; meanwhile, the larger quoted figure of 1/4 teaspoon is common online but raises more sodium-related safety flags and is not medically validated as a weight-loss or metabolic intervention [2] [1].