Are scare stories bad for our health?
Rob Sharp, writing online for Independent.ie, asks, "Are you a cowering, diet-obsessed wreck, meticulously measuring your carbs and counting out individual grains of salt granules on to your plate?" He then offers hope--a book by professors Stanley Feldman and Vincent Marks who attack media scare tactics and so-called scientific wisdom, including misconceptions about salt. In his article Are scare stories bad for our health? he addresses the misguided scare tactics on salt:
Eating salt is not bad for us
Many scientists, think that too much salt can cause everything from heart attacks to strokes and kidney disease. Feldman and Marks believe the risks are overblown. This is because of our reliance, they say, on antiquated medical research in which patients were treated for high blood pressure with a lowered salt intake (before drugs were available).
"This seldom worked," they write. "Nevertheless, the myth has persisted." When results of 11 of the most scientifically credible studies of the effects of salt in the diet were analysed by the internationally recognised Cochrane Collaboration, the effect of salt on blood pressure was found to be negligible.
Salt is an essential food and without it we would die. Sweating is impossible without it, and strenuous exercise by those with depleted levels of salt can lead to overheating and death.
Just look at the Japanese, say the professors. They have double the European salt intake, yet have a longer life expectancy and less problem with blood pressure. "Lots of salt is nowhere near as bad as we are led to believe by campaigning groups," says Marks.
We might add that it is not just the Japanese that have high salt diets and positive health outcomes. It is widely known and accepted that the Mediterranean diet is high in salt, yet the Mediterranean people have the world's best cardiovascular health. The diet is so healthy that the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) used it as a model in their famous DASH Study (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension). The study confirmed that the Mediterranean/DASH diet was healthier than the typical American diet and effectively reduced blood pressure (BP).
In fact, we can take this one step further. Because a diet rich in vegetables is key to good health and because vegetables are much more flavorful with added salt, a healthy diet is much more easily realized by using salt, rather than trying to reduce it. As a mom, I spent years luring my children to eat their vegetables by adding salt and butter and, if necessary, ranch dressing. Hint for getting a finicky, rambunctious three year old boy to eat broccoli: Call the broccoli "trees", the salt "rain" and the ranch dressing a "river". Desperate times call for desperate measures! No damage done. He's a healthy 21 year-old now and has never referred to broccoli as trees in public, but he does like vegetables.
Message for the day: Scare stories might be bad for your health.
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