A recent report commissioned by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) reviewed the health benefits of reducing salt intake and the take-home message is that salt, in the quantities consumed by most Americans, is no longer considered a substantial health hazard. What the CDC study reported explicitly is that there is no benefit, and may be a danger, from reducing our salt intake below 1 tsp per day.
I have suffered from hypertension for the past 15 years. Over that time period I have consulted with five doctors with regards to salt intake. They are ALL of the opinion that salt intake is a non-issue. Furthermore I was cautioned not to decrease my salt intake as it could cause other serious medical problems.
I will take their word any day over the hucksters like Dr. Oz et al who thrive on these scare tactics for personal gain.
As long as I can remember the reported studies on salt have been mixed. I suspect the ones linked to high blood pressure are akin to climate science. Here’s our conclusion, now what do we have to ignore to prove it. I think it was our local doctor, Loki, who said that people who die of hypertension related diseases have no higher rate of body salt than anyone else. We piddle it away. The real danger is having low body salt, which can be fatal.
Well that handily confirms my view that only a fool would change his behaviour based on the latest study.
Wait, long enough and you’ll get the opposite view.
Which means, men, that the latest study suggesting that fish oil supplements may increase the risk of prostate cancer by 70% needs to be ignored, or perhaps used as a contrary indicator for an upped dosage.
Good!!!
Luv the stuff! So long guilt complex.
And here we have Bloomberg, Mayor of one of the largest cities in the Western World regulating the salt intake of all foods served in the city.
A co-worker’s wife cut salt out of his diet altogether and he ended up fainting while operating a piece of heavy equipment. Turned out that without the salt, he wasn’t retaining water properly…
damn lefty Joos!!!
As a physician, I can tell you reducing your salt intake (both through added salt and salt already present in your food) is important to preventing hypertension. Full stop.
That seems up for debate:
http://www.health-report.co.uk/sodium_chloride_salt_myths1.html
Eat moderately, exercise moderately, drink moderately, don’t smoke and do up your seatbelt. When enjoying the outdoors, wear a hat to mitigate excessive sun exposure. After that it’s either genetics, some unusual industrial exposures or a lightning bolt from heaven you’re powerless to prevent.
Most doctors stop learning the day they leave medical school. What they are taught is often dated. Their careers typically consist of following the edicts of their cookbooks. Today, in Amerika, board certified should read “guaranteed not to stray from Conn’s Current Therapy.” There are frighteningly few doctors who are physicians… full stop.
Workers in hot environments like smelters are given salt pills. If your body is giving up more salt than it takes in, everything from a lack of energy to a lethal stroke can be the result.
By all means. Salt is not dangerous. Increase the amount you sprinkle on your food. Why not 3+ tablespoons? While you’re at it… transfats are a great source of flavour! And nothing beats a pack of smokes after dinner! Go to town and don’t let those lousy liebrals ruin your fun!
Don’t read much, do you John ?
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/opinion/sunday/we-only-think-we-know-the-truth-about-salt.html?pagewanted=all&_r=2&
Well John, I hate to break this to you but food faddists come in every political affiliation right across the spectrum.I’ve seen right wingers with more paranoia about their daily bread than even your average commie and we’ve all had a relative or 2 that ate crap all his or her life right up until they died at age 89.
“transfats are a great source of flavour!”
Animal fats are better and just as healthy.
“And nothing beats a pack of smokes after dinner!”
There are people that believe that tobacco itself is healthy but the fertilizer used attaches radon or something radioactive like that. I can’t say I agree with them.
There sure are a lot of people smarter than the CDC. What’s that thing the CDC uses – Science?
Yeah well,Dante, credentials are not everything….
I can’t play bagpipes, but just by listening I know who can and can’t….
This salt/hypertension has been thoroughly debunked for a coupla years now.
That don’t mean nothing. There’s still folks out there claiming to be vegans….when established real, peer revued science/medicine/nutrician indicates that about 30 days is the most anyone could survive without animal protein. There are 3 (count ’em) essential amino acids which may only be obtained in a practical manner from animal sources.
That was established by certain unprincipled “physicians” during the 40’s….
And that’s yet another example of…
Tain’t right, tain’t wrong…just is…..
As far as salt, the mineral makeup of our blood resembles seawater…..for good reason….unless you believe G** stood on one toe like a ballarina, and simply willed us into existance.
So salt, potasium etc are vital.
It’s not so much too much salt as too much in relation to potassium intake.
http://www.naturalnews.com/024539_potassium_sodium_diet.html
A study from New York Presbyterian Hospital-Cornell Medical Center reported in Hypertension investigated the role of intracellular potassium and other ions in hypertension and diabetes. They concluded that potassium depletion is a common feature of essential hypertension and type 2 diabetes, treatment of hypertension at least partially restores potassium levels to normal, and fasting steady-state potassium levels are closely linked to calcium and magnesium homeostasis.
Clearly sodium is only one side of a two-sided equation. It is as necessary to body functioning as is potassium, but must be in balance with potassium to be effective. The traditional Western diet is high is sodium and low in potassium. Being told to reduce the amount of sodium consumed fails to acknowledge the need to raise potassium consumption until both minerals are balanced and equilibrium is reached in the fluid inside and outside of the cells.
Potassium and stroke
Several epidemiological studies have found that increased potassium intake is associated with decreased risk of stroke. A prospective study of 43,000 men found that men in the top 1/5th of dietary potassium intake were only 62% as likely to have a stroke as those in the lowest 1.5th of potassium intake. This inverse association was also seen in men with hypertension.
A prospective study of 5,600 men and women older than 65 years found that low potassium intake was associated with significantly increased incidence of stoke.
The next time someone tells you that government policies should be “evidence-based”, inform them that:
1. scientific evidence frequently changes with new research;
2. government’s job is to have a monopoly on coercion, but only as a retaliatory measure; therefore any “policy” that interferes with individual decision-making should be rejected, and the decision should be left to the individual to use his or her own individual judgment on the issue based on the “evidence”.
In my lifetime I have heard that cigarettes were absolutely linked to lung cancer. There was the saccharin scare, MSG was the devil’s salt, eggs were uber-cholesterol sources and along the way I heard that table salt (potassium chloride) was regarded like the following quote – and I remember this quote from a newspaper article a couple of decades ago – “there is as strong a link between salt and hypertension as there is between cigarette smoking and lung cancer”.
Global cooling, global warming, ozone holes, yadda yadda yadda…
The only one that makes sense to me is cigarette smoking and that is not likely to get a pass or reversal anytime soon, but I’m rethinking my ‘quit smoking’ strategy. (Ok, not really but it is tempting)
Those are only a few instances that I can think of – there are many more locked away in my salt encrusted grey matter.
Like all statistics, the ones activists use are usually pulled out of their ass. Radon gas is a much bigger contributor to lung cancer than the anti smoking Nazis would admit to. Also, there was a WHO study back in the eighties that showed living in any major Canadian/American city was equivalent to smoking a pack a day. Too bad they didn’t have google back then as that study is now well hidden. Also remember studies that showed second hand smoke as being harmless to others. Just another pissing contest between health nuts and the sheeple. The anti smoking campaign started out to see what would and wouldn’t work against the war on drugs and was driven (still is) by the UN. It had absolutely no traction until they threw the children into the breech. That was a “aha” moment for them and gave them the direction they needed. Although I had not smoked in 40 years I promised myself that when I retired I would start again, as I always enjoyed it when I did. Quit for monetary priorities. At this sitting I’m enjoying a good cigar. We all live ’till we die and the one thing that will kill you long before your time is worrying about what will kill you in the first place. Remember that stress is a killer and smoking is the best defense against stress:)) If you enjoy it…do it , if not , leave it alone. Life is all about quality, not quantity. Live clean, eat healthy and die anyway. I feel sorry for all the health nuts when they are lying on their death beds and can’t understand how they could be dying of …..nothing. We are all born with that stamp…..Best before…. Anything (legal) in moderation. Not to mention it really feels good to give these professional busybodies the middle finger.
Well, if I can’t have some salt on my lemon with my shot of tequila then what the hell ?
I actually agree with ya on most…but caution…table salt is SODIUM chloride…not potassium chloride.
I smoke because it is the simplest way to avoid SECOND-HAND smoke.
That stuff allegedly will peal the chrome of a chevy bumper at 50 yards…upwind. I could go on…..
Bannanas are reputed to be a good source of potassium….not sure if it does enough. I have speculated that ham and bacon are so popular because they satisfy an unconscious craving for potassium. (potassium nitrate gives the red colour and unique flavour)
Ham? That could also also be sodium nitrate.
Also Sasquatch, good ole Cajun Beans and Rice is full of potassium.