New Study: Low Salt Diet Kills

junkscience.com ^ | May 3, 2011 | Steve Milloy

[HangnJudge]

What I remember from Physiology classes was
In a person with normal kidney function,
and not on drugs used to modify Salt excretion,
Over a broad range of dietary intakes
the kidneys will modify salt excretion and the
brain will modify water intake to maintain homeostasis.

I would worry more about a diet low on potassium,
than a diet high on salt

All bets are off with kidney disease,
diuretic use, or congestive heart failure

But hyponatremia (low salt levels)
can be a particularly vicious finding
on the blood tests in the elderly

[tina07]

hyponatremia ` thanks for the medical term for it, looking it up.

[leenie312]

sweating 3 or 4 times than normal??..yuck...pass the salt

[DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis]

Whew.I’m safe then.

Yeah, me too! lol

[Yaelle]

Yes! Vindicated! Just eat only natural foods and salt them yourself with sea salt. It’s so delicious. Stay away from packaged foods, because all the sodium in them doesn’t even taste good - it’s wasted sodium. Sprinkled on your veggies and meat at home, a good salt can be SAVORED and ENJOYED! Me loves my salt. Also, drink a ton of water.

[unixfox]

Beer safe. CHECK
Salt safe. CHECK

Works for me.

[LibertarianLiz]

I remember there was a big "salt scare" around the time my husband and I first married (30 years). So, I did a lot of low salt stuff, but stopped after a while. About 3-5 years ago, I heard a report on the radio that some long term study about salt intake had finally compiled its findings and found no connection between salt and hbp or heart problems.

I swear it wasn't more than a year later that the fanatics were after our salt again. So, I am not surprised by this study; but, I don't think facts matter to people who insist on inserting their theories into our lives, whether the theories are right or wrong.

I have always had some doubt about being fearful of salt, since we are salt-creatures. We are mostly liquid, and that liquid is salt water. Since our bodies are obviously created to handle salt, what is the problem. I'm not going to be installing a salt lick in our home or anything; but, I'm not going to stop cooking with salt either.

[Spartan79]

Chomp down a slab of Virginia ham for about a month’s worth of sodium.

[Wolfstar]

If we listened to all these (often contradictory) studies, we wouldn’t eat anything but rabbit food and the occasional piece of fish.

[HangnJudge]

hyponatremia is a frequently observed electrolyte abnormality in hospitalized chronic alcoholic patients and is related to various pathophysiological mechanisms.

http://alcalc.oxfordjournals.org/content/35/6/612.full
MECHANISMS OF HYPONATRAEMIA IN ALCOHOL PATIENTS

[Foolsgold]

My doctor just told me that Real ButterIs far better for you than the man made stuff.

[Foolsgold]

My doctor just told me that Real Butter Is far better for you than the man made stuff.

[tina07]

Thanks, drowning her system in beer for the last 26 yrs. has come to fruition for her, not to mention heavy smoking (smoker myself, cut down to less than a half pack last 3 yrs., so hypocritical there). I hope and pray she survives and makes DRASTIC changes.

[BreezyDog]

I have that salt in large chunks. I bought a jar of it at Williams Senoma for no particular reason other than it looked cool.

[decimon]

Thanks, Pining.

Never worried about salt and just cuz I really like it. There may be something to a sodium-potassium balance so I’ve been using Morton Lite Salt.

[EternalVigilance]

I eat salt, sugar, whole wheat we grind ourselves, red meat, milk, vegetables from the garden, eggs, and cook with lard.

I’m going to live forever. :-)

Shoot, that’s pretty much what my forebears ate, and most of them lived into their nineties or even past one hundred.

[blackdog]

"Just have to put a new case of beer in the fridge before the last one is half gone. Climate change takes time."

I'm going to borrow that one if you don't mind.

[Freee-dame]

My doctor just told me that Real Butter Is far better for you than the man made stuff.

After decades of the feds telling us to eat margarine, they realized that, oops, its all transfats. Ingredients in butter: sweet cream and salt; ingredients in margarine are too numerous to list.

[Freee-dame]

My doctor just told me that Real Butter Is far better for you than the man made stuff.

After decades of the feds telling us to eat margarine, they realized that, oops, its all transfats. Ingredients in butter: sweet cream and salt; ingredients in margarine are too numerous to list.

[BobL]

My (large) company and I’m sure most middle and larger companies spend a HUGE amount of money trying to get their people to eat properly.

The problem is that no one STILL knows what the hell that means. We’re told to cut down on salt...now we find it kills us to cut down. Similar could be said about many, many, things - like eggs, butter, etc.

My rule is IGNORE THEM ALL and simply try to eat reasonable (i.e., tastes good). But I do try to stay away from heavily processed stuff, as I have no confidence in them (like transfats...but they’re, thankfully, almost gone).

Also, didn’t Mayor Blumberg in New York start taking away salt from his ‘children’? I’d like to know his take on this article.