Cardiologist Debunks Salt Myth

Center for Consumer Freedom ^ | 1/6/12 | CCF

[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.

[RegulatorCountry]

... Better known as country ham. City ham is cured with sugar instead of salt.

[trebb]

Well, If the British can say water doesn’t hydrate, we can believe most anything.

I think the real issue is that a majority of us have no ill effects from salt. Because some folks do, it all of a sudden becomes a blanket philosophy which is wrong on so many levels and is how the fascist government takes our freedoms one at a time by bringing out one or two cases and making laws because "we need to do something". I love salt and put a LOT on my food. 60 years old and BP is 110/60 on average. If salt caused hypertension the way some people believe, I would be in a world of hurt.

[Reeses]

Remember when hard pretzels looked like this? Last year Barky threatened the snack food industry with salt regulation. Now Snyder's pretzels have about 3 grains on salt on them. It's about sharing the misery. If some minority can't eat salt, no one can.

[Diapason]

“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.”

“The old southern solution to that was to put dried rice in the salt. “

I can remember someone suggesting that to me at the time. The irony is that I subsequently ended up working, for many years, for one of the major importers of rice into South Africa.

[RetSignman]

[If you drink enough water...]

I was doing a little web searching on this subject and that was one of main reasons most people have a ‘salt problem’.

Most people just don’t drink enough water.

[Tzfat]

Which “FAA”? Not the the REAL FAA. I’ve been getting FAA First Class Medicals for 35+ years, and your numbers are wrong.

[Rappini]

Funny how things change when I was in the Military our barracks had salt tablet dispensers.

[catnipman]

“Anyone remember “salt tablets” during periods of extreme perspiration?”

Yep. I used to take them as a youngster when I worked construction in the summers in Charlotte, N.C. The month of August could be particularly brutal.

[annieokie]

""our body tells us what we need"""

I know that's true. I sometimes crave licorice, or chocolate, and yes Salty things.

GOD did indeed created us interesting,as you say. Awesome creation.

[leapfrog0202]

[R. Scott]

No, not salt cured ham. Salt pork. There’s a big difference, try to find some and try to eat it. It’s rare these days, it came in slabs and is puffy with salt. It used to be packed in barrels or crates.

[TheBattman]

I am in no way in favor of giving the government authority to tell us how much salt we can use or have in our foods. I don’t mind so much a requirement to have to put the sodium content on products. But telling me I cannot have sodium, or that the food industry can’t use salt... that is a problem.

[Pining_4_TX]

The problem is not with sick people, whether one thinks they caused their own condition or not, but with government intervention in health insurance and health care that forces people to pay for others. In a free market, there would be better care at lower prices for more people. After all the #1 risk factor for most illness is aging. That is why government health care seeks to limit care of the elderly.