Salt not as damaging to health as previously thought, says study
1–10 of 231 posts
Re: Salt not as damaging to health as previously thought, says study
#2Nutrition "science" caught again perpetuating findings based in assumption and hitting the data until it fits, not solid research? Oh no, nobody could've expected that... also "scientists who are on a crusade to reduce our salt consumption to near zero". Like pope Urban II always said, no better place to do sound research than on a crusade.
Re: Salt not as damaging to health as previously thought, says study
#3Is it really that surprising to anyone that salt isn't damaging? Salt makes your nerves work. You need those to think and move.
I remember learning in a run-of-the-mill high school biology class that the electrolyte differential in nerve cells creates the electric pulse to make signals. I'm having trouble remembering the details, but I remember that it was basically "If you don't have enough salt, your nerves stop working and you die. If you have too much salt, your cells retain too much water and you die."
Re: Salt not as damaging to health as previously thought, says study
#4Well functioning kidneys will handle moderate excess sodium with no issues. Remember hackers, population statistics and outcome studies help with diagnostics but do not have to tell you how to treat your specific body. It's in one's best interest to know your unique makeup: kidney function, liver function, IQ, testosterone levels, neurotransmitter levels, genetic fingerprint via 123AndMe or other, etc.
Stats are only decent guides from an expected value metric if you consider yourself equally probable in the population distribution. But you aren't, you can find out all the above priors with some work..a pain in the ass but well worth it considering the time that health issues can take from you in the future. So take some time to do some mental psychometrics and physical biometrics on yourself. It's always worth it to be better able to see which science applies to you even when the science is results from totally uniform population.
Re: Salt not as damaging to health as previously thought, says study
#5Well functioning kidneys will handle moderate excess sodium with no issues. Remember hackers, population statistics and outcome studies help with diagnostics but do not have to tell you how to treat your specific body. It's in one's best interest to know your unique makeup: kidney function, liver function, IQ, testosterone levels, neurotransmitter levels, genetic fingerprint via 123AndMe or other, etc. Stats are only…
Reminds me of an odd statement I recently read: the average person has one testicle and one ovary.
Re: Salt not as damaging to health as previously thought, says study
#6Nutrition "science" caught again perpetuating findings based in assumption and hitting the data until it fits, not solid research? Oh no, nobody could've expected that... also "scientists who are on a crusade to reduce our salt consumption to near zero". Like pope Urban II always said, no better place to do sound research than on a crusade.
Salt increases intravascular osmolarity, which increases water retention to correct the osmolarity. This is freshman inorganic chemistry. There's plenty of biomedical science behind renal pathophysiology and the link between salt and blood pressure is as close to an if-then statement as there is in medicine. We use all sorts of drugs and methods to play with this central mechanism and can observe the effects in real time at the bedside.
It's not "science". It's science, as in, emperically demonstrated, over and over, billions of times, every time, science.
That said, healthy people manage their osmolarity and blood pressure through other renal mechanisms. The people who run up against this salt-blood pressure issue are generally medically fragile, older people who have outrun all their other compensation mechanisms. The question here is more about the cost-benefit of pushing this particular public health message. The vast majority of healthy people don't benefit, and the sick people get the word from their physicians anyway.
Re: Salt not as damaging to health as previously thought, says study
#7It does affect blood pressure negatively (making it too high), so avoiding making the food too salty is a good thing.
Re: Salt not as damaging to health as previously thought, says study
#8Hasn't that been known for a long time. The strong anti-Salt attitude was scientifically challenged for a long time but the knowledge is very slow to spread.
Re: Salt not as damaging to health as previously thought, says study
#9Salt in itself may not be bad. But salt makes food taste better, which tends to make people eat more, which causes people to gain weight. And being overweight brings with it health issues.
It's the second order effects that you need to be aware of when asking if something is "good" or "bad".
Re: Salt not as damaging to health as previously thought, says study
#10It does affect blood pressure negatively (making it too high), so avoiding making the food too salty is a good thing.
If you read the article, you'll see that theory is questioned to a degree.