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Cutting back on salt may not be as beneficial for your heart as once thought, a new study suggests. While a diet low in salt reduces blood pressure, it increases the levels of cholesterol, fat and hormones in the blood that are known to increase the risk of heart disease, the study found. Overall, the good and bad consequences of a low-salt diet may cancel each other out, so the diet has relatively little effect on the development of disease, said study researcher Dr. Niels Graudal, of Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's decision to stay out of the Republican presidential race means that the American people will be spared months of discussion about his ample waistline and the bad example it sets. Nonetheless, with first lady Michelle Obama urging everyone to get moving, obesity remains a political hot potato, or maybe a tater tot. Below, a helping of skepticism about the causes of Americans' poor eating habits - and the efficacy of political fixes. 5 myths of healthy eating...

Mayor Bloomberg warned Friday there would be riots in the streets if Washington doesn't get serious about generating jobs. "We have a lot of kids graduating college, can't find jobs," Bloomberg said on his weekly WOR radio show. "That's what happened in Cairo. That's what happened in Madrid. You don't want those kinds of riots here."

The safe bet remains that Sarah Palin is simply engaged in a long and tiresome tease. Every few weeks comes some new sign of her supposedly imminent entry into the GOP presidential race, but nothing ever seems to happen. For the latest flurry of speculation, we can thank Karl Rove, who used several television appearances last weekend to argue that "I think she gets in" and to suggest that Palin's scheduled appearance at a Sept. 3 Tea Party event in Iowa might double as a campaign launch. Like each one that's come before it, chances are that this eruption will...

Within the last few years, we have been treated to attempts by government to control our food intake with regulatory “nudges” and legislative edicts. Sugar, salt, trans-fats, fats in general, fast foods, and school lunches are just a few ingredients and food types which have come under assault by sanctimonious busybodies seeking to dictate “healthy” eating to everyone.New York Times food writer  provides the latest in we-know-what’s-best-for-you babble. In a Times op-ed, Bittman complains, “WHAT will it take to get Americans to change our eating habits?”The question itself makes a fundamentally flawed assumption and exhibits arrogance. Why is it anyone’s...

Eating Less Salt May Not Lower Risk of Heart Disease Contrary to what medical experts have been saying for years, a new study suggests salt may not be as bad for the heart as commonly believed. Researchers from the Universities of Exeter and Plymouth in Exeter, U.K. reviewed data from seven studies with nearly 6,500 participants who reduced their salt intake and found that while eating less salt did lower blood pressure, it did not reduce the risk of dying or of having heart disease.

Researchers in the US and Australia have identified the mechanism underlying an ancient animal instinct: our appetite for sodium chloride (salt). The mechanism is hijacked by addictive compounds, such as opiates, which could help to explain patterns of drug abuse. An appetite for salt can be crucial to survival because animals with an ability to meet bodily demands for salt by rapidly consuming salty solutions are more likely to avoid predators. But little was understood about the molecular control of this process.  Now scientists from the Duke University Medical Center in Durham, NC, and the University of Melbourne have identified, in...

OROUMIEH LAKE, Iran – From a hillside, Kamal Saadat looked forlornly at hundreds of potential customers, knowing he could not take them for trips in his boat to enjoy a spring weekend on picturesque Oroumieh Lake, the third largest saltwater lake on earth. "Look, the boat is stuck... It cannot move anymore," said Saadat, gesturing to where it lay encased by solidifying salt and lamenting that he could not understand why the lake was fading away.

Which is more dangerous: dietary salt or the government’s dietary guidelines? A new study confirms some old truths. A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (May 4), reports that among 3,681 study subjects followed for as long as 23 years, the cardiovascular death rate was more than 50 percent higher among those on who consumed less salt. The researchers concluded that their findings, “refute the estimates of computer model of lives saved and health care costs reduced with lower salt intake” and they do not support “the current recommendations of a generalized and indiscriminate reduction...

Australian researchers are challenging guidelines that urge diabetics to cut back on salt in their diet. In a study that seems to turn conventional wisdom on its head, they found patients with the highest levels of sodium in their urine had the smallest risk of dying over a 10-year period. "Such data call into question universal recommendations that all adults should endeavor to reduce their salt intake," Dr. Elif I. Ekinci of the University of Melbourne in Victoria and colleagues write in the journal Diabetes Care. But don't reach for the pretzels just yet. Although it isn't the first time...

Salt intake affects body's ability to simultaneously regulate blood pressure and temperatureNew research from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and Kent State University shows that salt intake raises blood pressure because it makes it harder for the cardiovascular system to simultaneously juggle the regulation of blood pressure and body temperature. For decades, medical researchers have sought to understand how salt causes salt-induced high blood pressure to no avail. Some individuals, described as "salt sensitive," experience an increase in blood pressure following the ingestion of salt, whereas others, termed "salt resistant," do not. Until now, scientists have been unable...

CINCINNATI—All those salty snacks available at the local tavern might be doing more than increasing your thirst: They could also play a role in suppressing social anxiety. New research from the University of Cincinnati (UC) shows that elevated levels of sodium blunt the body's natural responses to stress by inhibiting stress hormones that would otherwise be activated in stressful situations. These hormones are located along the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, which controls reactions to stress. The research is reported in the April 6, 2011, issue of The Journal of Neuroscience, the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience. "We're calling this...

Chinese seek refunds as salt panic subsides Sun Mar 20, 2:29 am ET SHANGHAI (AFP) – Chinese consumers caught up in panic salt buying in the mistaken belief it would protect against radiation from Japan's nuclear crisis are finding stores are refusing to refund their hoards of salt. Supermarkets said they were unable to refund purchases of iodised salt, citing rules that say food cannot be returned if it has no quality problems, state media reported Sunday. Panicked shoppers had set off a run on iodised salt despite government reassurances that China faced no danger from Japan's March 11 earthquake...

Stop hoarding salt, China tells radiation-scared shoppers China's economic agency told shoppers on Thursday to stop panic buying salt, blaming baseless rumours that the iodine in it can stop radiation sickness. Skip related content The Chinese government has repeatedly said the country's residents will not be exposed to radiation from a nuclear plant in northeastern Japan which engineers are frantically trying to bring under control after it was damaged by last Friday's earthquake and tsunami. But in a sign of increasing public worries about the risks, people across much of China have been buying large amounts of iodised salt, emptying...

February 5, 2011 Obama Turns Over British Nuclear Secrets to Russians Posted by Van Helsing at February 5, 2011 9:50 AM At least the WikiLeaks revelations have made it crystal clear why no one in his right mind should want an unvetted community organizer with a radical background in charge of the country, no matter how "historic" his skin color. Possibly motivated by his malignant anticolonialist ideology, the Backstabber in Chief has once again demonstrated his hatred of our closest ally (and colonizer of his ancestral homeland Kenya), this time by offering British nuclear secrets to the Russians. Information about...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government is telling half of the U.S. population to drastically cut their daily salt intake. That's the advice to consumers - and the food industry - as the government issues new dietary guidelines, which are the recommendations behind the popular food pyramid. For the first time, the Agriculture and Health and Human Services departments, which issue the guidelines every five years, are telling people who are 51 and older, all African-Americans and anyone suffering from hypertension, diabetes or chronic kidney disease to reduce daily sodium intake to little more than half a teaspoon.

Florida bans 'bath salt' drugs after violent outburstsBy Alexia Campbell and Aaron Deslatte, Sun Sentinel 7:26 p.m. EST, January 26, 2011 TALLAHASSEE — Disturbing reports of violent drug users "with superhuman strength," pushed Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi on Wednesday to ban drugs sold as "bath salts." Florida is the second state, after Louisiana, to outlaw the so-called fake cocaine. The white powder, sold at gas stations and specialty shops around the state, has sent dozens of users to emergency rooms and mental hospitals in recent months, according to authorities. **SNIP** "To put it in perspective, that's right up there...

The half-gram bottle of bath salts promises an "invigorating" and "energizing" experience. But to local and federal authorities, it's another dangerous product misused as fake cocaine that's sending youths to emergency rooms and mental hospitals in Florida and across the country. As federal officials prepare to ban synthetic marijuana, specialty shops and convenience stores across Florida have started stocking up on bottles of bath salts. Louisiana and Florida authorities have linked these bath salts to at least two suicides in Louisiana, 21 calls to Florida poison control centers and dozens of hospital visits in Central and South Florida in the...

My husband bought me some of my favorite soup, Campbell's Cream of Potato. My mouth got all ready and I sipped the first spoon. I spit it back in the bowl. It tasted TERRIBLE! I thought it was spoiled. Nope. Now! With Sea Salt Added! If I wanted sea salt I'd go float in the ocean! I just discovered that they've done the same to Vegetarian Vegetable. No more Campbell's soup for me. And I wrote them to tell them where they can stick their sea salt! I don't buy Healthy Choice soups because they taste awful. So they are...

The post-World War i disarmament movement, as journalist Walter Lippmann observed in 1943, was “tragically successful in disarming the nations that believed in disarmament” (emphasis mine throughout). Those who weren’t believers, of course, were responsible for the nightmare of the Second World War. History is now repeating itself. In April, one year after his pledge in Prague to seek “a world without nuclear weapons,” U.S. President Barack Obama told the New York Times that he would not use nuclear weapons against a non-nuclear state, even if that nation attacked the U.S. with biological or chemical weapons. The administration’s new position...