Much to-do and to do about salt
It is one of the great oddities of nutrition that public health guidelines invariably recommend salt reduction but the science is so hard to do that the value of doing so can’t be proven unequivocally. Hypertension specialists insist that salt reduction is essential for controlling high blood pressure, and many people with high blood pressure can demonstrate that this is true.
So why can’t the science show it? I’d say because even the lowest salt intakes are higher than recommended. Because everyone consumes higher-than-recommended amounts, it’s impossible to divide people into meaningful groups of salt eaters and see whether low-salt diets work.
With that said, here are the latest events in the salt wars:
1. An article by a group of investigators in California and Washington state, “Can dietary sodium be modified by public policy,” argues that it makes no difference who you are, everybody consumes salt in the same range. Therefore, there is no point in trying to lower it.
2. Not so, say critics, who point out that the authors of that study consult with the food and salt industries (and, therefore, have conscious or unconscious biases) and that plenty of evidence demonstrates the value of salt reduction.
3. ConAgra says it will cut the salt in its products by 20% in the next few years, according to an article in Bloomberg News (in which I am quoted). Why is ConAgra doing this? To lower the salt before the company is forced to. Regulators are well aware that nearly 80% of the salt in American diets comes from processed and pre-prepared foods, not salt shakers.
Expect to hear lots more about the need to reduce salt intake this year.
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Comments
Thanks, Marion, for spotlighting the salt issue. I definitely think this is one of those policy vs. individual behavior change issues. It is a lot easier to cut salt out of our processed foods than it is to ask people to eat less salt. They have little control over their salt intake if a large part of their diet includes processed foods. We need a policy to reduce the salt in processed foods, but congrats to ConAgra for being proactive (not that I like ConAgra, but still it’s a step in the right direction).
If you’ve not read it, I’ll refer you to Boynton, McCarty, and Moore, The Salt Solution (Avery, 2001, ISBN 1-58333-085-2). While they blame sodium for almost every one of the big ten killers (and laud potassium as the sodium-slayer), the book is well-referenced and refers to some (older) large-scale studies including INTERSALT and DASH. I’d thought they referred also to the DASH-Sodium and Nurses’ studies, but upon inspection it looks like I’m confusing that work with Willett’s Eat, Drink and Be Healthy.
Perhaps the bigger issue in social salt consumption is our reliance on pre-prepared, packaged, and preserved foods — many of which traditionally required salt for preservation, and others of which are salted to disguise the loss of flavor in the mass-produced and long-stored item. By making one’s meals from fresh produce and using pre-prepared sauces sparingly, one can drastically reduce one’s sodium consumption.
I’m a teensy confused, Marion. If one doesn’t eat ANY processed food (I don’t) and is careful with the shaker and the “pinching” while cooking, is that still too much? I’ve been working with 1/2 tsp/day in my kitchen–is that still too much? My BP dropped dramatically with weight loss, but I still take a tiny dose of diuretic and would love to conquer the BP. Odd thing–as a child I loved to lick salt off my hand and dumped it liberally on everything–in secret of course, as my mother was rightly alarmed by this!
My Doctor turned me onto ‘Gray Seasalt’. He said that it is salt in its natual form with all of the trace minerals that are processed out of the white table salt or even white sea salt we buy in the stores. I read that the minerals that are in salt get processed and sold to various drug companies among other businesses.
http://pda.physorg.com/_news175270777.html
Humans naturally regulate their sodium intake, rendering government intervention useless.
It’s a study that has angered nutrition policy advocates, but adjunct UC-Davis nutrition professor said it is backed by sound data and that he expects such a left-field finding to get heat.
The study concluded that the human body makes sure sodium levels remain within a certain range at all times, similar to maintaining body temperature.
“Our sodium intake is regulated by the brain, and your brain won’t let you go very far outside of that boundary.”
humans might naturally regulate their sodium intake if they were eating naturally. but a chicken sandwich from panera has 2200mg of sodium. so according tot his study, a person would naturally steer clear of sodium for the rest of the day after eating this? i doubt it. they will be back for more the next day after eating some rice-a-roni with 690mg of sodium, canned vegetables with 300mg of sodium, and some pre-cooked chicken with 500+mg sodium. that’s if they “cook” dinner themselves. if they eat out twice a day (not unheard of), there is no way that people will naturally steer themselves away from sodium. i am not buying it.
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I am a big fan of simple, and no genius about reading all the studies. What I do know is when I quit eating processed foods/restaurant foods, and returned to basic fresh foods with no added salt in cooking or at the table, I stopped having swelling in my lower legs at the end of the day, and my blood pressure reduced. That’s enough evidence for me to continue along this track.
Susanne, what exactly is “eating naturally”? I ask as salt has been used all over the world as a preservative for foods for thousands of years. One might argue that to “eat naturally” is to preserve foods, as in most climate zones of the world, meat and vegetables are not readily available year round. Looking at the recipes for preserved foods from my great-great and great-great-great grandparents, I’m not sure I’m convinced that we are consuming more salts and sugars these days than they did then (at least during the winter months).