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Sodium – it’s good for you!
“…decades of scientific research have failed to prove ANY benefits of a low-salt diet, and in fact tend to show the opposite. Studies have also failed to prove salt’s connection to heart disease.” Dr. Mercola.
Functions of Sodium:
Therapeutic uses of salt:
Signs of deficiency:
“In 1997, the DASH-sodium study was conducted to determine whether or not a low-salt diet would control hypertension. The DASH diet consists largely of fresh vegetables and fruits, lean protein, whole grains and low-fat dairy and is very low in salt. But it’s also low in sugar. So as people on DASH diets do show reduced hypertension, the reason for this is not the reduction of salt but the reduction of sugar. This diet was also pretty much free of processed foods or artificial additives, which really do contribute to hypertension in a real way.” Dr. Mercola
The DASH-sodium study is particularly interesting because the control group, which consisted of several thousand people, was made up of people who had a diet of mainly or only processed food including meat 3 times a day, and who drank a lot. The group was divided into two: Group A was allowed to carry on eating and drinking as normal. Group B was put on a very strict diet, as Dr. Mercola describes above. The conclusion of this study is that salt is bad for your heart, and not that junk food, a lot of meat and excessive alcohol are bad for your heart, which is what the study actually showed.
In his classic 1988 article “The (Political) Science of Salt,” Taubes wrote:
“While the government has been denouncing salt as a health hazard for decades, no amount of scientific effort has been able to dispense with the suspicions that it is not. Indeed, the controversy over the benefits, if any, of salt reduction now constitutes one of the longest running, most vitriolic, and surreal disputes in all of medicine….
The data supporting universal salt reduction have never been compelling, nor has it ever been demonstrated that such a program would not have unforeseen negative side effects… After decades of intensive research, the apparent benefits of avoiding salt have only diminished. This suggests either that the true benefit has now been revealed and is indeed small, or that it is nonexistent, and researchers believing they have detected such benefits have been deluded by the confounding influences of other variables…”
In this recent study researchers followed 3,681 middle-aged healthy Europeans for eight years. The participants were divided into three groups: low salt, moderate salt, and high salt consumption. Researchers tracked mortality rates for the three groups, with the following results:
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“…decades of scientific research have failed to prove ANY benefits of a low-salt diet, and in fact tend to show the opposite. Studies have also failed to prove salt’s connection to heart disease.” Dr. Mercola.
Functions of Sodium:
Therapeutic uses of salt:
Signs of deficiency:
“In 1997, the DASH-sodium study was conducted to determine whether or not a low-salt diet would control hypertension. The DASH diet consists largely of fresh vegetables and fruits, lean protein, whole grains and low-fat dairy and is very low in salt. But it’s also low in sugar. So as people on DASH diets do show reduced hypertension, the reason for this is not the reduction of salt but the reduction of sugar. This diet was also pretty much free of processed foods or artificial additives, which really do contribute to hypertension in a real way.” Dr. Mercola
The DASH-sodium study is particularly interesting because the control group, which consisted of several thousand people, was made up of people who had a diet of mainly or only processed food including meat 3 times a day, and who drank a lot. The group was divided into two: Group A was allowed to carry on eating and drinking as normal. Group B was put on a very strict diet, as Dr. Mercola describes above. The conclusion of this study is that salt is bad for your heart, and not that junk food, a lot of meat and excessive alcohol are bad for your heart, which is what the study actually showed.
In his classic 1988 article “The (Political) Science of Salt,” Taubes wrote:
“While the government has been denouncing salt as a health hazard for decades, no amount of scientific effort has been able to dispense with the suspicions that it is not. Indeed, the controversy over the benefits, if any, of salt reduction now constitutes one of the longest running, most vitriolic, and surreal disputes in all of medicine….
The data supporting universal salt reduction have never been compelling, nor has it ever been demonstrated that such a program would not have unforeseen negative side effects… After decades of intensive research, the apparent benefits of avoiding salt have only diminished. This suggests either that the true benefit has now been revealed and is indeed small, or that it is nonexistent, and researchers believing they have detected such benefits have been deluded by the confounding influences of other variables…”
In this recent study researchers followed 3,681 middle-aged healthy Europeans for eight years. The participants were divided into three groups: low salt, moderate salt, and high salt consumption. Researchers tracked mortality rates for the three groups, with the following results: