Shaking up beliefs about salt

by Maggie Vink (Subscribe to Maggie Vink's posts)
Jun 4th 2008 3:30PM

New research is shaking up the belief that a low-salt diet benefits heart health. A low-sodium diet has long been recommended to lower blood pressure, but this new research suggests that lower sodium may not impact heart health as much as previously thought ... if at all.

Through surveys, researchers followed the health of over 8,000 participants over a period of years. After adjusting for other risk factors, the participants who consumed the least salt were 80% more likely to die from cardiac disease.

It's important to note that the researchers are not implying that a low-salt diet could be a causative factor for heart disease. Rather, they're questioning the efficacy of low-sodium diets for heart health and questioning whether it makes sense for doctors to recommend lowering sodium intake for people who have no other health problems. Personally, I'm having a hard time shaking the low-sodium belief. What do you think?

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Comments (5)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Tam 6-05-2008 @ 10:56AM

I find this very confusing; since I have not been using the sea salt and have gotten use to it.

Maggie Vink 6-05-2008 @ 10:58AM

I think it's confusing, too, Tam. There is study after study saying that a low-sodium diet helps lower blood pressure, and then they come out with this. Personally, I'm going to continue with low-sodium!

marcie0305 6-05-2008 @ 11:07PM

I'm thinking maybe it has to do with the fact that a lot of people are getting too much salt from nasty processed & fast foods? In addition, "table salt" is stripped of a lot of the minerals we need and adds iodine which was needed back in the pirate days to prevent - goiter was it? Anyway, stick with the sea salt (or something else cool like Himalayan Sea Salt - in general salt should not be pure white, as should not flour or sweeteners) to make sure you're getting the minerals you need to balance the sodium...

~Marcie
http://feedingblackmail.blogspot.com

pk 6-09-2008 @ 6:13AM

sea salt is, by law, >99% sodium chloride. it is not a significant source of any other minerals.

Kibs 6-08-2008 @ 11:56AM

I don't know either, I think the jury's still out on this one, basically because I know both my father & grandmother (his mother) being hospitalized several times for low sodium in their blood & they have ALWAYS used lots of salt on their food!