Uh oh, my heart’s acting up. Quick, pass the salt:
A new study, conducted by researchers from Belgium, the Czech Republic, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Russia, and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, suggests that low-sodium diets may not be so healthy after all. The team, led by Jan Staessen, of the University of Leuven, in Belgium, examined 3,681 middle-aged Europeans who began the study without heart disease. After following these volunteers for an average of eight years, the researchers came to a shocking conclusion. Those who ate the least salt were most likely to die of heart disease. Those who consumed the most were no more likely to develop hypertension than the low-sodium group.
(emph. mine)
h/t
This ranks right up there with the bad rap given to coconut oil a number of years ago. Damn near impossible to find and buy coconut oil anymore, despite the fact the original studies maligning it were a bit dodgy.
Moderation in all things. The optimum sodium intake actually is not well established.
Also, “cut back on fats” is inane. Fats are essential.
The question is, how much does one need, and in what form is the essential fat intake to be obtained.
It is also possible to over-exercise.
Pepper the gravy and pass the salt…
The control group likely included people who’d been put on a low sodium diet because they were at risk for hypertension, either because of family history, or a bad check-up. I doubt they found a random sampling of people who went on a low sodium diet, just for the hell of it. It would stand to reason that these people would have a higher risk of heart disease, no matter what they eat. Sometimes “scientists” overlook the obvious, in their quest for a new discovery.
It took over 30 years to figure out why the “Atkins Diet” works. It’s really simple, protein fills you up faster than carbs, so you end up eating fewer calories on the diet. Nothing magical.
Colin in Mission BC – you can find coconut oil in most health food or vitamin stores (bigger ones anyway). It is easy to find in Vancouver.
The “low salt” message is dangerous to a lot of people and I’ve had patients who have reduced their salt intake to levels below that needed by their bodies. Every summer I find a few elderly people who either come into hospital having been injured in falls or just don’t feel right. Their bp is low and their sodium is low. People forget that when they live in a hot environment they sweat and sweat is high is sodium. I’ve treated countless patients by putting them on a high salt diet.
When people have normal taste responses, they have cravings for salty foods when they’re low in sodium. I remember when I used to plant trees I’d have an incredible craving for cheezies and sometimes eat 5-10 bags of them at the bar after work — this was to replace the salt lost in the gallon or two of sweat that I’d secreted during the day. This salt craving appears to be blunted in the elderly or they are more likely to believe what they’re told about salt being bad.
My experience is that salt sensitive hypertension is rare. If you’re black, it’s much more likely. The only people I put on low salt diets are people with congestive heart failure and with renal failure on dialysis — here all of the extra salt is accompanied by retention of fluid. For someone with normal heart and kidney function I don’t worry about salt. That said, I find most processed food far too salty in the winter but it tastes a lot better in the summer.
loki
So one could say everybody has to learn how to operate their own badass self? No?
What next? Don’t tell me! Pork rind makes you lose weight!
Syncrodox, exactly right. What I can’t figure out is if most animals can figure out what trace minerals they need why people shouldn’t be able to do the same?
Kleen Bill – pork rinds are what I recommend to people trying to lose weight. Far better to snack on pork rinds than potato chips. No carbs. Unfortunately the selection of pork rinds in Canada is very limited; nothing like the extensive array of pork rinds, pork cracklins and other delectable pig-skin derived products one find in the Southern US. This is part of the Atkins diet.
Next they will have a study show us that French Fries every morning will not only prevent heart disease,but will have the same affect on you forehead as a Botox treatment,
I have alway eaten what I wanted and lived my life as I want to … Jimi Hendrix did that, but then he drowned on someone’s vomit or something like that. The best advice in that instance is never, ever pass out tits up.
loki
My theory goes that most animals are unimpressed by pop culture fads and celebrity tweets.
I base this theory on the lack of observable blackberry use amongst rats.
Of course my methodology could be flawed.
There is a god…
People think this modern culture has no Mythology.
This is only a tiny example.
Revnant Dream
And I thought it was all mythology…go figure.
I have to watch my sodium intake for different (medically-mandated) reasons. No joy for me here.
That said, I cheat as I can, and I’ve learned what my condition will allow. However, I still think processed foods are way over-salted. I cringe watching some people add food to their salt.
Intresting study – I would be interested to know if they controlled for calorie intake etc. I wonder if the body craves fat and salt – if you have a low salt high fat diet, do you end up eating more?
Maybe now the Globe and Mail will shut the hell up about sodium and salt. They did run the story, however.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Government has no business dictating to the public on health issues, because people have the right to weigh the evidence and make up their own minds, and the evidence frequently changes over time (while government diktats tend to be locked in for long periods due to legislative sloth, not to mention special interests).
The wife and I have given up on all messages relating to health, as it seems like every week something comes up that will kill you and every ad on TV tries to scare you into buying some drug or other. To hell with it. We all live ’till we die. As far as salt goes…..it’s all BS.
http://www.health-report.co.uk/sodium_chloride_salt_myths1.html
These “experts” are unbelievable.
This bad for you. No, now we find it’s good for you.
I just wonder now, if there isn’t some disease remarkably reduced by putting ones thumb up ones arse!
Experts, who tests these f*ckers anyway??
Thumbsucking maybe?
Wait a minute … the science is settled. Stop it with f…..g with my brain already. This one has been so stamped into me, how am I to believe more salt might be OK after all? Researchers are wankers.
” People forget that when they live in a hot environment they sweat and sweat is high is sodium. I’ve treated countless patients by putting them on a high salt diet.”
loki.
………….
This is interesting to me, and I’ll share a little personal history:
When I was 19, (I’m now approaching 69…years old, that is), I worked on a building site, (dam construction), in Northern Australia….temperatures around 90F.
At that time, circa 1962, the US Military dispensed salt tablets to their personnel in ‘tropical’ environments, and our workplace ‘medic’ suggested I take some during my acclimatization transition period.
On approximately 4 different occasions I downed a single pill, washed down with water, and promptly threw up.
I’ve spent a fair portion of my life in hot climes, including the better part of a decade in Saudi Arabia, and have never once in my life added salt to any of my meals, nor have I ever felt the urge to consume salty foods.
I’m at genetic risk for elevated BP, (apparently due to high cortisol production), which I work on controlling through exercise and stable weight maintenance…….and still have no desire to consume salty foods.
Go figure.
nemo2, obviously you sweat quite efficiently. Interestingly, aldosterone acts on sweat glands to reduce sodium loss and if your aldosterone levels are high you will sweat out less sodium (but have higher blood pressure).
I don’t sweat efficiently and after an intense workout I often have salt crystals on my T-shirt. I can’t take salt tablets as they also make me puke but V8 juice is a good sodium source and I really crave it in the summer.
4-5% of the European population is heterozygous for the chloride channel mutation that causes cystic fibrosis and such people excrete twice as much sodium in sweat as someone without the mutation. There are thousands of other possible mutations that can affect sweat sodium content. An athlete heterozygous for the CF chloride channel exercising in a very hot environment can lose 12 grams of salt/day. This is the cause of “hypovolemic hyponatremia” which can be fatal and occurs in marathon runners who consume only water during a race. There’s probably more than you ever wanted to know about sweat electrolyte composition at:
http://journals.lww.com/acsm-csmr/Fulltext/2008/07001/Genetic_and_other_Determinants_of_Sweat_Sodium.7.aspx
What I find incredibly annoying about the broad pronouncements from catastrophizing nutritionists is that they assume their dietary recommendations should apply to everyone. People are biochemically individual and 4-5% of people with European ancestry need far more salt than is currently recommended on a daily basis, especially if they do physical work in hot climates. Now I’ll just wait until the CAGW crowd finds out about this and it will appear as a new hazard of “global warming”.
@ loki:
Thanks for you input, I had previously neglected to mention that I sweat like the proverbial pig when exercising…..at one time was running 10 miles per day, 7 days a week, and before my knees gave out ran a marathon, age 41, in Saudi….ingested an electrolyte drink post-race but that’s only because I couldn’t immediately locate anything else.
I’ll check out your links, (and attempt to understand them), and ask my doctor re aldosterone, as I’m due for a visit within the next few weeks.
Cheers.
Ha! Vindicated!
I put salt in my porridge every morning to my husband’s look of opprobrium. 😉
Haha.
I was justing thinking about how much salt I eat yesterday, then starting thinking about how they are probably wrong about that theory as well.
I am not saying that they are wrong, but a basic indicator about how healthy you are should be your fatness more than anything.
Enjoy your McDonald’s fries, they are great!
If cravings are an accurate indicator of your body’s needs, and animals’ instincts are reliable, why is chocolate the most craved food in the world, and why do dogs love to drink anti-freeze?
A low sodium diet does not eliminate sodium, it simply eliminates added sodium. There’s enough of it in most foods, already. All I do to keep my levels normal, is avoid the salt shaker. Once you get used to the actual taste of food, you stop craving the salt shaker. The only time I ever crave salt, is when I haven’t eaten anything for an entire day, and been exercising in the heat. At that point, a salty snack would be appropriate.
Salt tablets are only needed in the most extreme conditions. Even a boxer who fights 10 rounds, in 90 degree temperatures, only needs a softdrink to regain sodium levels. The guys working on the Hoover Dam were a different story. They sweated out gallons of water in a shift, and some needed suppliments.
Folks … please do not disregard your doctors advice based on this ‘study’. SOME people do retain water when they ingest salt. Increased water retention does drive up blood pressure in SOME people … and chronic high blood pressure WILL damage your heart and arteries over time.
I have seen and read a number of studies that seem to indicate a poor relationship between salt intake and heart disease, but there are many more studies out there that show a decrease in BP with a decrease in salt intake. Basically, it’s a user beware thing.
All advice found on the internet should be taken with a grain of salt (but no more.) lol.
The science has, as far as I know, never really supported salt reduction for anyone but people with salt-sensitive hypertension (and supports it quite strongly for those people).
That the AHA and other groups still push salt reduction as a good-in-itself is pathetic.
I suspect this is one of those “sleeper” momments…a la Woody Allen’s movie…..when one finds long held beliefs are nonsense.
Remember the US gardiner who declare that tomatoes were not poisonous….and announced he would eat a basket full in the town square, at high noon? When the authorities arrive to stop this obvious suicide…they found him happily holding an empty basket…having already eaten them.
There was some merit to this silly idea…tomatoes, potatoes are members of the nightshade familly and although raw tomatoes/potatoes are not toxic….the greens/tops are.
Everything in moderation…is the best course.
I think sasquatch has it:
moderation.
Use liberally.
Works wonderfully in most situations!!!
nemo2 wrote: (I’m now approaching 69…years old, that is)
Now THAT is funny!