There was an idea in 'Fat Head' where the narrator pokes fun at the idea that we are a species who's evolution has made us so that we crave foods that are actually killing us. It's not proof that we can't crave foods like sugar, fats and salt that might be harmful to us, but I think it sets up a health amount of skepticism towards the idea that our innate cravings are in fact harmful.
Salt, We Misjudged You
21–30 of 165 posts
Re: Salt, We Misjudged You
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed, nutritional "science" and conventional wisdom has become a joke.
It should be noted that the author of the linked article is Gary Taubes, who is best known for Good Calories, Bad Calories, a book that seeks to turn the conventional wisdom of nutrition on its head.
I loved GCBC, but unfortunately Taubes goes a little bit too far near the end in condemning carbohydrates. It's really hard to recommend the book because of that overreaching.
http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2011/08/carbohydrate-h...
Re: Salt, We Misjudged You
#23All right! Next up: MSG. Even those of my friends who know that the health concerns are bogus have a weird paranoia of MSG. I think it's a general suspicion of any chemical which makes food taste better (which somehow doesn't apply to salt and sugar).
I think part of the problem with MSG is the name. It's hard to convince the general public that something with the name "Monosodium Glutamate" is a naturally occurring substance, let alone one of the more abundant naturally occurring amino acids.
Hell, if we called table salt "Sodium Chloride" all the time, people would probably have a bit of a changed perspective.
None the less, MSG is delicious!
Re: Salt, We Misjudged You
#24Sort of an aside here, but salt and MSG should be used to increase the tastiness of otherwise bland foods, like asparagus, so that what you eat is more in line with what your body needs, rather than what is the most tasty in our post-industrial world. That is how I use salt: reduce starches and refined grains, and increase vegetables, lentils, and the like. Sure I still have some bread and a normal amount of meat (at…
just FYI, in the pre-industrial world of my home town you can still go picking up wild asparagus[1] which are _far_ from bland, I have no idea if those exist in any form where you live but I strongly advice you to try them out if you can. [1] stuff like this http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__88ZCQ5jRIs/Sju4DrHvsZI/AAAAAAAAg1...
That looks amazing, but wouldn't you season it? A little olive oil and salt then throw it on the grill for a minute?
Re: Salt, We Misjudged You
#25So, I always cringe a little when I read medical conclusions in the mainstream media. And I'll be upfront. I'm probably biased on the side of medicine on this one. I'm a former nephrologist.
The one study this person mentions by name (and dismisses) is the DASH-Sodium Study.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DASH_diet#Study_Results
"Like the previous study, it was based on a large sample (412 participants) and was a multi-center, randomized, outpatient feeding study where the subjects were given all their food."
"The DASH-Sodium study found that reductions in sodium intake produced significantly lower systolic and diastolic blood pressures in both the control and DASH diets. Study results indicate that the quantity of dietary sodium in the control diet was twice as powerful in its effect on blood pressure as it was in the DASH diet."
So, positive conclusions (lower salt -> lower blood pressure) in a seemingly well designed study. People were randomized, it was prospective, and people given all their food. So, change one thing and see what happens.
The author here seems to cite other studies to make the opposing case (low salt = bad), but doesn't give exact references. I did a quick google search and found this one: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/04/health/research/04salt.htm... But you can already tell it's an inferior study. "It involved only those without high blood pressure at the start, was observational, considered at best suggestive and not conclusive."
So, let's try to compare apples to apples.
He points out that the DASH study didn't conclude anything about death or cardiovascular disease. Yes, that's true. So sure, there's a chance that despite blood pressure reductions a low salt diet could cause problems. But it's not the obvious conclusion. Anyone have any solid studies on this?
Re: Salt, We Misjudged You
#26I have always wondered why so many facets of "institutional health" are promoted as the status quo even with much contradictory evidence or lack of "common sense". A couple of things that come to mind: salt saturated fats sugars I know many instances of this problem have to do with monetary interests. But salt? Who gains from low salt intake? Reputation? Or is it something else.
Taube's theory (about cholesterol, but I think it applies here as well) is that it's "where the light is". Things which are measurable are optimized for even if they're pragmatically pointless.
So a study comes along that finds a correlation between sodium intake and cardiovascular disease. Totally possible. The USDA looks at those numbers and says, we're eating Xmg of salt, we should be eating Ymg. They make a recommendation, years go by, and they look at the numbers again and, hey, salt consumption is down to Ymg! Success!
What about mortality? Who knows. That's not their department.
Re: Salt, We Misjudged You
#27Everything in moderation.
Seriously, almost all of modern food/health science could be reduced down to this simple phrase. Eating too much of "X" is bad for you. No, really? Ya think? Even cigarettes in moderation won't kill you.
I don't mean to beat this to death, but any kind of statement about moderation presupposes that we already understand how different amount of some substance will effect us. The topic under discussion boils down to "what is too little, what is too much and what is moderation?". You cannot answer that with "just go for moderation" when moderation is precisely what we are trying to define.
I see this kind of thing all the time and it irks me because I see so much agreement with what amounts to a circular statement.
Re: Salt, We Misjudged You
#28All right! Next up: MSG. Even those of my friends who know that the health concerns are bogus have a weird paranoia of MSG. I think it's a general suspicion of any chemical which makes food taste better (which somehow doesn't apply to salt and sugar).
I think part of the problem with MSG is the name. It's hard to convince the general public that something with the name "Monosodium Glutamate" is a naturally occurring substance, let alone one of the more abundant naturally occurring amino acids. Hell, if we called table salt "Sodium Chloride" all the time, people would probably have a bit of a changed perspective. None the less, MSG is delicious!
I think that's the idea behind the "All Natural AC'CENT® Flavor Enhancer" branding-- they don't say "monosodium glutamate" anywhere on the package except the ingredients.
I just call it supersalt. Because it's like salt, but not salty!
Re: Salt, We Misjudged You
#29So, I always cringe a little when I read medical conclusions in the mainstream media. And I'll be upfront. I'm probably biased on the side of medicine on this one. I'm a former nephrologist. The one study this person mentions by name (and dismisses) is the DASH-Sodium Study. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DASH_diet#Study_Results "Like the previous study, it was based on a large sample (412 participants) and was a multi…
> I always cringe a little when I read medical conclusions in the mainstream media.
I usually do too, especially articles about nutrition which are notoriously unreliable due to the near complete lack of randomized, controlled, prospective studies and the abundance of observational studies, but this one doesn't seem too bad. In fact, the same author published a similar article in Science last millennium http://www.stat.berkeley.edu/users/rice/Stat2/salt.html so I don't think you can blame the mainstream media too much here if they're just printing an article similar to what would satisfy Science's editorial standards.
Re: Salt, We Misjudged You
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most likely The Paleo Solution. That's the one that turned my diet around.
The Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson is also great and changed my life. Reading 'Good Calories Bad Calories' now from Gary Taubes (the author of the op) and it is awesome too.
Thanks for the references.
Are they solid science? all I have personally come across about the paleo diet is unconvincing and does not stand up to scrutiny.
"I want to believe" would be my stance.