One of the reasons for many diseases such as diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure, kidney disease, etc., is the excess consumption of salt and sugar in the diet. So, to minimize these health problems, it is important to consume appropriate quantity of salt and sugar in the diet. This paper presents the design and development of a salt and sugar detection system using a low cost compact microstrip patch antenna. The salt and sugar detection system using a compact microstrip antenna is based upon the variation of antenna parameters in the solutions of different concentrations of salt and sugar. The defected ground structure (DGS) is utilized for decreasing the size and improving the performance of the proposed microstrip patch antenna. The antenna is fed by using a microstrip line and it resonates at 2.4 GHz. The designed antenna is simulated and optimized using the computer simulation technology (CST) microwave studio. The antenna with optimized dimensions is fabricated and measured. The measurements of the return loss of the fabricated microstrip patch antenna for various solutions with different concentrations of salt and sugar are performed. The measured results confirm that the proposed compact microstrip patch antenna is suitable to detect the concentration of salt and sugar in the water. From the measured results, it is observed that the return loss of the antenna decreases, when the concentration of salt and sugar is increased. The proposed antenna is also suitable for compact 2.4 GHz wireless local area networks (WLAN) applications.