Health
Related: About this forumSalt, We Misjudged You
Gary Taubes so, umm, take it with a grain of salt.
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The idea that eating less salt can worsen health outcomes may sound bizarre, but it also has biological plausibility and is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, too. A 1972 paper in The New England Journal of Medicine reported that the less salt people ate, the higher their levels of a substance secreted by the kidneys, called renin, which set off a physiological cascade of events that seemed to end with an increased risk of heart disease. In this scenario: eat less salt, secrete more renin, get heart disease, die prematurely.
With nearly everyone focused on the supposed benefits of salt restriction, little research was done to look at the potential dangers. But four years ago, Italian researchers began publishing the results from a series of clinical trials, all of which reported that, among patients with heart failure, reducing salt consumption increased the risk of death.
Those trials have been followed by a slew of studies suggesting that reducing sodium to anything like what government policy refers to as a safe upper limit is likely to do more harm than good. These covered some 100,000 people in more than 30 countries and showed that salt consumption is remarkably stable among populations over time. In the United States, for instance, it has remained constant for the last 50 years, despite 40 years of the eat-less-salt message. The average salt intake in these populations what could be called the normal salt intake was one and a half teaspoons a day, almost 50 percent above what federal agencies consider a safe upper limit for healthy Americans under 50, and more than double what the policy advises for those who arent so young or healthy. This consistency, between populations and over time, suggests that how much salt we eat is determined by physiological demands, not diet choices.
Full oped (~1,600 words): http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/opinion/sunday/we-only-think-we-know-the-truth-about-salt.html?pagewanted=all
virgogal
(10,178 posts)salvorhardin
(9,995 posts)Pretty soon our doctors are going to sound like Woody Allen's doctor in Sleeper, telling us that smoking is good for us.
monmouth
(21,078 posts)xchrom
(108,903 posts)Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)at 10,300 milligrams per day, show a correlation between high salt intake and high blood pressure.
"Excess salt intake has also been shown to be one of the greatest high blood pressure causes. The people of the islands of northern Japan have one of the largest salt intakes in the world and they also happen to have one of the highest rates of high blood pressure as well. Many people with high blood pressure have an acute sensitivity to even low levels of salt, and will find that a reduction of salt in their diet will help the problem."
http://healthclover.com/high-blood-pressure-causes/
See also http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/salt/salt-and-heart-disease/
salvorhardin
(9,995 posts)Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)Sarufutsu Village, Hokkaido, to be exact, which advises its residents that the Number 1 way to prevent high blood pressure is to reduce salt intake.
http://www.vill.sarufutsu.hokkaido.jp/hotnews/detail/00000259.html
Celebration
(15,812 posts)That populations are different from individuals?
Quite possibly, the same amount of sodium could impact one person negatively and another positively.
I seem to recall that some people are salt sensitive and others are not. Why no mention of that?
http://www.livestrong.com/article/401037-what-is-salt-sensitive-hypertension/
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Salt is a necessary nutrient. The dangers from too little are far more compelling than the dangers from a bit too much. Just stay away from processed "food" and you'll be fine, salt your food as much as you feel like.
I've known for more than thirty years that salt is essential, and limiting it too much is not a good thing.
hedgehog
(36,286 posts)For example, one theory holds that African Americans are the descendants of people who survived the Middle Passage because of a very specific quirk of salt metabolism. As a result of the same quirk, their blood pressure is very sensitive to salt consumption.
widmerpool
(1 post)Why am I supposed to take the advice of Taubes with a grain of salt?
Is there something "not progressive" with his scientific questioning?
I don't think everyone should do what he says but he certainly exposes the flimsy science behind many food recommendations.