Nutri. Conventional Wisdom Takes It on Chin: Salt Harmless, Fish Oil Hikes Risk of Prostate Cancer

RUSH: Here it is. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta admit a long-standing error. "There is no benefit in reducing salt." Again, from the Centers for Disease Control: "There is no benefit in reducing salt." They are correcting a long-standing error.

These are the kind of stories I just eat up. I just lick these stories like a salt lick. I love these stories. I just love it when conventional wisdom is turned upside down, when the food Nazis are exposed as the deceitful frauds that they are.

"A recent report commissioned by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reviewed the health benefits of reducing salt intake and the take-home message is --" dadelut dadelut dadelut dadelut "--that salt, in the quantities consumed by most Americans, is no longer considered a substantial health hazard." In fact, "It may be that we’re better off with more salt than less, up to 2 or even 3 teaspoons per day. How did it happen that such standard medical advice drifted astray, then went uncorrected for so long?"

How did that happen? How does that happen? How do all of these food myths get started? How do all of these health myths get started? And as I ask again and again, how long is it going to be until everybody realizes that the people pushing this stuff are political, are pushing a political agenda? Now, I realize some of you might be saying, "Rush, come on, now, couldn't they just have made a mistake? What in the world would be political about telling people not to eat salt?" Now, you might be thinking that I think that that's an example of liberalism. And that's not what I'm saying. It's about control, folks. It's about power.

It's about control. It's about manipulation and dictating the way you live and forcing it on you and everybody else, rather than just letting you live your life as you want to, letting you enjoy the things that you like without being penalized, stigmatized, humiliated, or what have you. Just yesterday we learned that all of these drugs for ADD, don't make a bit of difference. Your young boys that are hyperactive, in your mind, so you gotta slow 'em down so they can focus and learn better, it doesn't work. You ever stop to think that maybe Attention Deficit Disorder is something that exists for reasons other than improving the life of your kid?

How many people have kids, turns out they have a little boy, little boy's rambunctious, "Oh, my God, this kid's driving me crazy!" Maybe you shouldn'ta had the kid in the first place if you weren't prepared to deal with what little boys and little kids do. So here comes a new disease, and it's got a new drug, and it's designed to calm your kid down and make him, quote, unquote, more normal, i.e., more manageable. And, by the way, your kid's gonna learn better, too. Turns out that wasn't true.

Not only, folks, are you ready? It's not just salt. Try this. "Taking health supplements with omega-3 fatty acids--" I hate to tell you this. It turns out "Taking health supplements with omega-3 fatty acids can increase the chances of contracting prostate cancer, according to new research. Omega-3 fatty acids, found naturally in oily fish and lauded for their anti-inflammatory properties, were found to increase the risk of high-grade disease by 71 percent."
Now, how many people have been out shoveling omega-3 pills or however you take the stuff because the food Nazis have created a panic and a crisis that you gotta have some of this stuff. Fish is much more healthy than meat, of course, don't you know, and anything associated with fish is much better for you and much healthier than anything else you can eat. So people, nobody wants to die, shovel this stuff in, and they now discovered...

"A US team of scientists compared blood samples from 834 men diagnosed with prostate cancer and 1,393 participants without the disease. High blood concentrations of all three omega-3 fatty acids commonly found in supplements EPA, DPA and DHA were linked to the findings. Senior report author Dr Alan Kristal told Sky News: 'We looked at the marker in blood for the intake of these fatty acids and we found to our surprise that it was associated with increased risk of prostate cancer. If you took an omega-3 fatty acid pill, or a fish oil pill every day, you are at the highest risk group.'

"Writing in the online edition of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, the scientists said the evidence suggested that the fatty acids played a role in prostate cancer development. People tempted to up their intake of omega-3, particularly by means of supplements, 'should consider its potential risks.' Further research was needed to uncover the mechanisms that might cause omega-3 to drive prostate cancer, said the researchers.
Nutritionist Nicole Berberian told Sky News: 'The fact is that just from this snapshot ... we can't actually say cause of effect, so there is a long way to go before we can say that the cause of this correlation is the actual intake of oily fish. So as yet, it is not a cause to panic.'"

But they have found a correlation. They haven't found the cause yet, but in a sample of thousands, they have found that prostate cancer is much more prevalent in people that have been taking these omega-3 fatty acid supplements.

And back to this. "A recent report commissioned by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) reviewed the health benefits of reducing salt intake," and the message is that salt is no longer considered a substantial health hazard, and, in fact, we may be better off with more salt than less. Now, it would be easy for me to sit here, nah-nah-nah-nah, 'cause I'm gonna tell you the truth, folks, I don't pay attention to any of this health stuff. I don't respond to fads, of any kind, I don't care what the fad is. I'm not a fad, and I don't do fads. I didn't avoid oat bran when it was said to be a killer. I never avoided coffee. I never avoided eggs. I didn't avoid fat. I didn't do any of this stuff, because they don't know.

It's all political. It's all rooted in the fact that I distrust liberals, and every one of these groups is a liberal group that is doing what they're doing as a way of eating. This is how they live. They live on grants. And I happen to know this, too. Ask anybody that does a newsletter about the stock market, and they will tell you the best way to goose subscriptions is to forecast a disaster, to forecast a crash, to forecast crisis. Well, the food Nazi people have figured this out. X is gonna kill you, and you've got their attention. And maybe you'll donate to their cause. And maybe you'll become an evangel and you'll start telling everybody else to stop doing that stuff and maybe these people have got something against the meat industry for political reasons and they're just trying to make you think that they're independently unbiased, all they're interested in is your health.

Remember all this Oprah business and these people trying to get everybody hog-tied into not eating beef for a while on the basis it was gonna destroy the planet, that eating beef resulted in or caused all of these cattle to graze, and they were eating all the grass, and somehow this was causing global warming. Don't tell me this stuff is not political. It's all political. All of science is become politicized. All of education's become politicized. All of the news media's political. You point to me something that isn't. The Catholic Church, in certain elements, has become politicized. It was taken in by the notion that welfare states equal charity, and socialism equals charity. So they became big believers in that stuff. I mean, you can't avoid it.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest is succeeding in banning coconut oil, which is one of the most healthful oils you can consume, and they won't let you buy it. And all these people have to do is come up with a logo, get a fax machine, fax out a press release, the media will cover it because they will report crisis and panic and impending disaster and doom. They never tell you when an airplane lands safely. It's no big deal. I never avoided fast food, and there has been a movement against that. You take your pick. Exercise, ditto. And look at all the conflicting evidence there is about exercise.

All I've done is live. I didn't even go in for this moderation business, folks. If I like something, I like it, until I get tired of it, and I move on to something else that I like. I'm not advocating replicate me, don't misunderstand, I'm just telling you that I just know how much better everybody would be if they understood that everything like this, that all of this originates from people of a left-wing political persuasion. And of course they'll tell you that they're just interested in compassion and helping people and improving people's lives and all of that, and I would contend to you that that's the least of what they end up doing. Anyway, forget all that 'cause I know that it's probably thinking that I can't bring up anything without adding politics to it, but I'm telling you it's undeniable.

All you need to know is, have all the salt you want, it isn't a problem. And I, by the way, just so you know, I have never reduced my salt intake over the course of my life because of what namby-pamby, pestering little scientist said. Science has been corrupted, too. Look at global warming. If something needs more salt, then by God, I put it on there. Life, we only have one, and it's not meant to be spent in denial every damn minute of every day. Certainly not spent in denial because of a bunch of meddling leftists trying to tell everybody else how to live.

I mean, look at Michelle Obama. She's all of a sudden the nutrition expert in the world, the nutrition expert in this country? Based on what? That she's a liberal and that she cares about people, and that she loves people, and therefore she only has everybody's best interests at heart, including the little children. Well, the little children eating her menu are starving. And because they're starving, they're going home and they're gorging on stuff that people might think is not good for them.

AP story, March 17th, 2010. "Michelle Obama Urges Food Companies to Cut the Fat, Salt and Sugar." Okay. Well, she's the first lady. She cares about people. So we must do it. Not me. Sorry. I don't care who says it. I don't care if it was Reagan's committee on physical fitness. Screw 'em. Everything's politicized. From the article. "Michelle Obama is urging the nation's largest food companies --" that means demanding, by the way. She's the first lady. Barack's her husband. You don't urge; she demands "-- the nation's largest food companies to speed up efforts to make healthier foods and reduce marketing of unhealthy foods to children." I've got a story, folks, there's no way I can tell you about this. I'm gonna have to provide the link for you, because it prints out to 18 pages. I found it today.

The premise of this story -- well, there are many premises -- but one of the primary premises of this story is that the processed food industry holds the key to healthful lifestyles and eating, not the organic. This is a long story about the corruption of the food industry by the whole foods bunch, not the brand, but the wholesome, natural, organic, all that, is a corruption of the food industry rooted in competition. The processed food guys are competitors of the organic food guys. The organic food guys, like anybody, they are Samsung, and the processed food guys are Apple, and they're trying to wipe each other out.

The author of this story makes the case that the key to improving diets and healthful intake for the vast majority of people probably lies in the processed food industry.

RUSH: It's from The Atlantic, TheAtlantic.com: "How Junk Food Can End Obesity," how the processed food industry can lead to the end of obesity. It's the exact opposite of everything you've been led to believe. "Popular food producers, fast-food chains among them, are already applying various tricks and technologies to create less caloric and more satiating versions of their junky fare that nonetheless retain much of the appeal of the originals, and could be induced to go much further."

The guy's point is that with the popularity and the ubiquity of processed foods, the fact that people love them and that they're relatively cheap (in certain places, anyway), it's a golden opportunity to end obesity and and that people in that business are already making moves in that direction. I just love turning things up down, 180 degrees out of phase. Eat all the salt you want. The CDC admits it's been an error all of these decades. (interruption) Okay, so... (interruption) All right, so... (interruption)

Okay, Snerdley said, "Well, what if this is an error and then they come back five years later...?" You know what? How many of you overdose on salt anyway, is the point. They've got everybody believing that adding salt to anything is gonna kill them. It's absurd! Just live. If you want some salt on something, put it on there. It isn't gonna kill you, is the point. Nobody's talking about shaking a whole canister of Morton Salt on your steak. Just don't be afraid of it. You want to put salt on something? Add it. Ditto, sugar. Add it.

RUSH: Here is a pull quote from that long, long Atlantic story. "In fact, these roundly demonized companies could do far more for the public's health in five years than the wholesome-food movement is likely to accomplish in the next 50. But will the wholesome-food advocates let them?" You know, the "wholesome-food advocates" are not just gonna sit down and let this happen -- and who are the "wholesome-food advocates"?

Well, the militant vegetarians, and all these people that are not content to eat the way they want. Look at Mayor Doomberg. What is this guy doing? Folks, do not try to tell me this stuff is not politicized. Everywhere you look, the left and liberals -- I don't care how seemingly innocent and nice they are -- they're trying to tell you how to live. They are not content to live by virtue of their own choices. They have to force their choices on you. And it's not just food, it's everything.

It's the way they vote; it's the way they look at cultural issues. You have to do everything the way they do it, and if you don't it's not enough that you have freedom to disagree. They are going to try to eliminate your point of view. They don't want to be confronted by people who do not conform -- and they will use coercion, force, whatever to get you to conform. The worst practitioners of that, of course, are liberal politicians, elected officials. There's a story today about San Francisco.

There's a restaurant in San Francisco that apparently specializes in bacon, and some of the leftists (Who else would it be?) in the neighborhood are trying to shut down the restaurant because they don't like the smell of bacon outside the restaurant. Don't tell me this stuff isn't political. See, it's not enough to say, "Okay, there's a restaurant specializes in bacon." These people don't like it. It's not enough that they don't go there. Fine, they don't have to go. They want to shut the place down. They want to make it so that you can't go in there.

They want to make it so that the people that run the place can't serve bacon, can't prepare it, because they don't like the smell of it. I'm saying, it's none of their damn business. They can not eat it and that's it. But, no. They have to force it. It's like the anti-smoking Nazis. We've had stories of people like this. I think one was from Montgomery County, Maryland. A woman tried to claim that somebody smoking in an apartment 300 feet from her house, with everybody's windows closed, sent smoke into her house.

She tried to claim she could smell the smoke and wanted that woman's smoking to be stopped. She was in her house with the windows closed! The smoker was in an apartment 300 feet away, a football field away. There was no way she could smell that woman's smoke. She knew the woman in that apartment did smoke (or the guy, whoever it was) and it wasn't enough that she didn't smoke. She wanted to make sure he didn't. That's who they are. All of this stuff is political, or the vast, vast majority of it is.

Good points, but he’s misstating the fish oil study when he says that the cancers were elevated in those who took the supplements. They were elevated in those who had the Omega 3’s in the blood.

Of course, these new studies may be reversed in two years, and everyone will say the “old” (presently new) studies were wrong.

I think coffee has alternated between good and bad for you at least three times.

It might be simpler to ask what—if anything—the feral government has told us that isn't a lie or a conclusion based on fake science.

What, if you permit me to ask another question in the same vein, has the feral government actually accomplished since we went to the moon? Has it actually succeeded at a single task or vaunted "war" it's undertaken? It seems to me it fails at everything it touches.

Never bought into the anti-salt hysteria

Ditto.

Been arguing the point longer than I can remember. Same for the egg-cholesterol dogma.
When something's illogical remember Occam's Razor.

I long gave up on all this crap. I’m sick of food snobs.

Nothing is really so bad or so good for you. It all evens out. 1 “great” food is bad in 1 way. Another “bad” food is good in some way.

There is always a “too much” level. The body tends to tell you when you need something and when to stop.

If I have too much sugar-based treats my body says to stop, and likely also makes me crave milk to stabilize. Sometimes I crave salty treats, but not always. The body talks, and we can listen.

i think for people with serious joint issues it may still outweigh the risks.

i don’t take it every day, I get enough fats ad oils from other sources.

Excessive intake of salt causes my BP to rise and my ankles to swell. It is a fact.

I do not think this happens with everyone, however. I am into my early old age now, so maybe that is why I have this problem.

As long as I avoid too much salt, I can still avoid using BP meds. So, I think I am doing OK.

there is also a wide scale of what “normal” is across the human spectrum.

docs have spent decades freaking people out over supposedly gospel numbers we all must hit.

sell the drugs, docs. sell the drugs.

sure, excessive salt can do that to anyone.

and like everyone, you could go ahead and drink so much water in a short time that you die because you flush out all the salt from your body.

what “excessive” is can vary greatly between people, that’s a given.

There are hardly any numbers that fits all people well.

i think what can all be agreed on in general is staying active seems to be beneficial for almost everyone, it helps the body metabolize what is coming in better, gets it through your gut better, and keeps your body in better shape than being mostly sedentary. it appears that for most people junk, fast, and processed foods are not as good for them in terms of fuel and overall health than better caloric and nutritional food options. Supplements for the most part can help with nutritional deficiencies, but are not magical fixers if you’re eating a lot of crap foods and are mostly sedentary.

I think adding salt to flavor food is fine. The problem is all the salt in processed food. I fight congestive heart failure and fluid buildup all the time. If I eat too much salt, there is no question. My legs swell.

Good points, but he’s misstating the fish oil study when he says that the cancers were elevated in those who took the supplements. They were elevated in those who had the Omega 3’s in the blood.

I had a physical earlier this week and told my doctor that krill oil really upset my system. She responded that concentrated Omega-3's like krill oil can do some nasty things to the G-I track, so I guess it creating other issues isn't too much of a surprise. She said that Omega-3 supplements in moderation have benefits far in excess of the potential problems. She told me to continue taking fish oil in moderation (because it doesn't upset my system).

Maybe so, but when I have more than a limited amount of salt, I hold fluids swell up so I cannot wear my shoes and since the first place we store fluid is the ears, I often get dizzy. I know too much salt is bad for me. It may not be bad for everyone. I will continue to be conscious of the amount of salt I consume. I like being able to get my shoes on my feet.

The information about Omega-3 is somewhat off.

To start with, years ago the American Medical Association began enormous statistical surveys of doctors and nurses, where they noted that men who consumed fish once a week had a huge drop in the number of *one* type of heart attack.

A particularly acute type of heart attack, sometimes called “dead before you hit the floor”. However, they did not find any correlation with other forms of heart disease.

But soon, others *extrapolated* all sorts of health benefits from consuming fish oil. It is *these* the current study is likely challenging.

The original study also noted little or no benefit from consuming *more* fish oil than once a week.

Yet people are extremists, so hold to the notion that “If a little is good, more is better!”

Well, maybe not.

"Excessive intake of salt causes my BP to rise and my ankles to swell. It is a fact."

I don't think that was Rush's point.

Leaving aside that an "Excessive intake of salt" begs the question of what constitutes an "excessive intake" . . .
If an "excessive intake" of anything causes you problems, then don't do it. Don't wait for someone else to tell you not to do it.

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