Comments on: The research on salt

By: The Evidence on Salt | The Incidental Economist

The Evidence on Salt | The Incidental Economist — Thu, 20 May 2010 12:11:38 +0000

[...] for some pointers to the evidence and debate over salt’s effect on health. He directed me to Marion Nestle of the blog Food Politics who links to a dozen or so articles and commentaries on the issue. [...]

By: Deborah Noble

Deborah Noble — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 05:39:33 +0000

I’m not sure where Dr. Alderman has been looking but I’m pretty sure the DASH Diet feeding studies, with and without lowered sodium, plus the Trials of Hypertension Prevention in the 1970s, qualify as “clinical trials”. Dr. Alderman is a longtime advisor to (and I think board member of) the Salt Institute, and despite his eminent academic status, that makes him a questionable spokesman on the real public health picture for salt and hypertension.

By: ET Addison

ET Addison — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:01:17 +0000

This is where it gets sticky. Where iffy and incomplete and ambiguous science meets public policy.

You do NOT declare fact by concensus. Just because a ‘committee’ agreed to recommend something is scientifically and factually meaningless. Just because 12 people believe something doesn’t make it so. Marion’s trust of committees is touching.

We could just as easily say ‘the sun can’t be 93 million miles from the earth. That seems way too high. That doesn’t seem right, I mean, people get sunburn and all. I just can’t see how it can be that far away.”

We say it should be 45 million miles. That seems about right.

I’m sure somebody could make a measurement that would show that is correct.

There is way too much moralizing and tsk-tsking and value-judging and guessing in nutrition.

‘We think sodium consumption is too high’ is group-think, not science.

By: Emily

Emily — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 20:35:26 +0000

Julie, I, too, am curious if sodium source makes a difference. Soy sauce is high in sodium, but don’t we keep reading that the rates of most cancers are very low in east Asia? (And then there’s kimchee and umeboshi and li hing mui and….) One can’t help but wonder.

By: Even MORE Celebrity Eats « How to Eat a Wolf

Even MORE Celebrity Eats « How to Eat a Wolf — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 12:42:53 +0000

[...] quiche was made using this recipe from Smitten Kitchen. (Note that since learning more about recent salt studies, I have omitted the salt from most recipes with good results.) I like the authors’ no frills [...]

By: Anthro

Anthro — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 20:29:13 +0000

Three cheers to meatlessmama and laura k! I’m with the two of you. This needs to start in school, though, as it’s not happening much in the home.

We are lucky to have Marion sorting through all the reports and give us a reasoned opinion. Thank you Ms. Nestle!

By: marisa

marisa — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 20:26:07 +0000

Imagine how little salt our ancestors used. Salt was worth its weight in gold, so a little salt for them probably went a long way, and they probably thought a pinch in food tasted glorious. Now we can’t even taste it when there’s 4000mg in a dish!

By: laura k

laura k — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:00:38 +0000

I can’t help but feel that if we didn’t eat out as often as we do, this wouldn’t be such a huge issue. I still consider eating out a special occasion kind of thing, and the extra dose of salt on those occasions won’t hurt me when I’m eating a regular diet most of the time.

I’m also pretty curious about the sodium differential between lower-end fast food and higher-end restaurant food.

All of these nutrition debates and troubles can, I think, really be mitigated by teaching people and encouraging people to cook their own darn meals again, from real food and not from a box.

By: meatlessmama

meatlessmama — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 16:44:02 +0000

I agree that a low salt environment would be a big improvement. I eat a mainly whole foods diet, and make nearly all my food from scratch. Avoiding restaurant and processed food allows me to really taste my food. Most people can’t taste all the salt they are consuming. On the rare occasion I eat something processed, the saltiness nearly gags me.

By: FoodFitnessFreshair

FoodFitnessFreshair — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 15:56:04 +0000

I agree that a “low salt environment” would be wonderful. Those who desire more salt can always add it back in, but you can’t take it out. You only need to add a little bit of salt while cooking to enhance the flavors. You don’t need tablespoon after tablespoon. Working in a restaurant, I’ve seen the enormous handfuls of salt they add into food. Since everything at restaurants is overly salted, our taste buds become desensitized to salt, and then it causes a whole cycle of over-salting everything