Salt
Destroying dogma is a tough thing to do. I try to do it here on this blog all the time. In fact, it was only February of 2012 that I wrote about the bogus salt problem in this country. Here is what I said:
The CDC is urging primary care physicians to talk to patients about ways to lower their sodium intake by about a quarter teaspoon of salt each day. Their senior scientist said that this would “ prevent thousands of deaths from cardiovascular disease, hypertension and stroke a year and save billions in health care dollars”. This came from an article in the American Medical News. The article goes on to talk about how ubiquitous sodium is in our foods. Mary Cogswell co-wrote a study showing that ten types of food account for 44% of the dietary sodium that Americans consume each day. She said, “sodium consumption is directly related to hypertension, which is a primary risk factor for heart disease, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases. That’s why it’s really important to identify the food sources.” Here is the problem. I am not sure she isn’t just talking out her arse. More and more we are finding that salt really isn’t the culprit in these problems. A recent European study last May that was published in JAMA showed that people who ate lots of salt were not more likely to get high blood pressure and were less likely to die of heart disease than those with a low salt intake. That author stated that ”it’s clear that one should be very careful in advocating generalized reduction in sodium intake in the population at large. There might be some benefits, but there might also be some adverse effects.”
So let’s just break this down. Cogswell uses old research claiming that sodium is directly related to hypertension. She then finds that a ton of food we eat has lots of sodium (as well as carbs and bad fats) and she connects the wrong dots. And this is from the head of the CDC?
It only took years but this dogma comes crashing down. Chalk one up for me. Nostradougus is right again. 🙂 Where is Mary Cogswell now? Why did it take so long to reverse this position?
Who is ready to accept that all fats, including saturated fats, are just fine? It’s coming. Hint: it was never proven and it was always the carbs that were the issue.
I intake 2-4 grams of salt a day… celtic sea salt.
For years I consumed only a few hundred milligrams of salt daily to prevent hypertension.One day I experienced sudden very severe constant weakness and fatigue.Exam revealed a sodium level of 122(not far from a fatal level).Consuming much larger amounts of salt helped,but I had recurrent episodes of fatigue attacks for years,and11 years later I still run a low sodium,unable to bring it back to normal(but in the low to mid 130’s I’m now asymptomatic).
I’ve loved salt since I was a kid. Always used lots of it.
Half a century later, when I visit my folks for a meal, and I dig the salt shaker out of the kitchen cabinet, they say, “You’re a doctor – Don’t you know that that’s bad for you?”
I say, “I’m a doctor, so I know it’s NOT bad for me.”
They just shake their heads in horror. Perfectly brainwashed.
The data that was shown to me in training was that very low salt diets could save you 3-5 mm on your systolic BP. Seriously, Clark? Talk about having a meh moment. Pass the salt. I’ll nibble a few more grains of metoprolol to cover it.