Posted on 01/06/2012 9:14:54 PM PST by Pining_4_TX
Has the tide turned for salt in 2012? Salt faces regular demonization from the media, lawmakers, and food police, with the hyperbolic Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) even calling it the “deadly white powder you already snort.” But as cardiologist-turned-chef Michael S. Fenster points out in The Atlantic, studies have not conclusively shown that a reduction in dietary sodium equates with a reduction in hypertension or its resulting effects.
Fenster also notes that while this theory “makes for great slogans, off the cuff advice, and lazy recommendations,” it “also makes for poor publicly mandated policy.” Big Apple Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants sodium restrictions, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is looking into regulation after a recommendation by the Institute of Medicine.
(Excerpt) Read more at consumerfreedom.com ...
If an individual with no known history of hypertension is found during the FAA exam to have blood pressure readings consistently higher than 155/95 then further investigation is required. Initially, this should consist of recording the blood pressure twice a day (morning and evening) for three consecutive days. If at least 4 of these 6 readings are 155/95 or less and the applicant is otherwise qualified, then no further action is required and the certificate can be issued.
The Feds can do pretty much whatever they want regardless of written regulations.
I have 30 years experience with the FDA, CBER, OSHA, DEA and probably one or two others.
When they get going you can sometimes use the courts to defend yourself, but even in court, you can’t always get them to follow their own written regulations.
They can have my salt shaker when they pry it from my cold, dead hands.
I’ve always wondered how a vital mineral like salt, which was a preservative for thousands of years before the refrigerator, ended up getting so much blame.
Salt make no difference to most people. If you drink enough water, and get a reasonable balance of electrolytes, you can have lots of salt.
Some people have problems with it though. So let’s make everyone suffer and cut it out of the diet.
As for the salt-free diet for a month dropping one's blood pressure by 8 pts., that's nothing. Really, putting up with that for a month for 8 pts.? If you want to suffer without taste in your food for that long, that's up to you, but more than once I've had a measured 15 pt. drop by simply breathing long and slow for half an hour, and a measured 20 pt. drop by drinking celery juice (a natural calcium channel blocker).
In addition, (disclaimer, NONE of this is medical advice), maybe those who are sensitive to salt are not getting enough potassium. Do an internet search on the sodium-potassium pump.
I believe the amout of sodium is not the problem it is the ratio of potassium to sodium that is the problem. Also celery for a natural food is very high in sodium.
He said /80 was failing.
I haven't had a reading as high as that since and have passed all my flight medicals.
Sodium causes water retention, which causes your heart to work harder pumping extra fluid through your veins - especially in older years when your kidney function decreases. That’s kind of common sense. Especially in patients with heart failure, where significant edema can build up, salt restriction is an easy and effective preventative measure.
One of the reasons the cost of health care and health insurance is as high as it is because of people who just refuse to take care of themselves even after they are diagnosed with a serious medical condition - leaving the rest of us to pay more to cover the larger footprint resulting from their irresponsibility.
When I first moved out of my parents home when I was in my 20’s, I was still using salt, which I been brought up to do. The first winter living on my own in Cape Town, South Africa where winters tend to be very damp, the dampness caused the salt to solidify. Instead of trying to solve the salt dampness problem, I just stopped using it and discovered what food really tastes like. However, in spite of having added no salt to anything for about 30 years, I have very high blood pressure - seems to be a genetic problem.
I think for most of us, our body tells us what we need. I don’t want salty food sometimes. I notice that after something very salty, I want something sweet. I think there’s much more to this taste bud thing. God just made us soooo interesting.
The old southern solution to that was to put dried rice in the salt. It's nature's dessicant, lol. I didn't know table salt came any other way as a kid.
In previous centuries, physicians depended on guesswork, experience and tradition. If the leaches were applied and the patient recovered, it was because of the leaches. If the patient died, it was because not enough leaches were applied, or patient would have died sooner without the leches. You can always mold your conclusion to fit your preconceived ideas.
Salt became a bogeyman when people started being so sedentary as a whole, and when air conditioning became a widespread residential phenomenon, in the sixties and seventies. The two aren’t completely unrelated.
Prior to that, salt was a necessity. Try working outside all day with temps in the nineties or higher and high humidity, without salt. You’ll pass out. People still take salt tablets under those conditions.
In undergraduate school I worked in a foundry during summer breaks and all water fountains had dispensers for salt tablets to replenish salt lost through. Gatorade serves the same purpose for players durig hot and humid weather. Also sodium is excreted through urination.
Anyone remember “salt tablets” during periods of extreme perspiration?
About 50 years ago I lived in a poor region of North Carolina. The school cafeteria served salt pork 2 or 3 times a week. Being a transplanted damnyankee I had no idea what it was, when I asked a classmate I was told it was meat. Not pork, just meat. I later found out that salt pork was the main staple meat for most of the people. Even chicken was only for special occasions.
It wasn’t soaked first to remove the salt, just sliced and fried. Very salty. I wonder why there weren’t more heart attacks in that town.
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