Doubting Thomas
Well, it's about time!
The two articles in yesterday's New York Times science section, "Hold the Salt? " and "Public Policy That Makes Test Subjects of Us All " by John Tierney finally brought the goods home!
Taking the trouble to do a comprehensive review of all the evidence available, Tierney writes how the New York City Health Commissioner, Thomas R. Frieden's salt reduction initiative is based more on political expediency than scientific merit.
We applaud this journalist who took the time and trouble to do the research showing that the alarmists' predictions that current salt consumption patterns result in 150,000 premature deaths per year is not based on scientific data but merely a trumped up estimate based on extrapolations based on assumptions that have never, to this day, been proven. Up until now most journalists who never did their homework, misinformed their readers by always assuming it was a fact. Tierney set the record straight and quite rightly says, "No one knows how people would react to less-salty food, much less what would happen to their health."
The article goes on to say that the population's response to reduced salt intakes is heterogeneous and makes the valid point that some individual's blood pressure actually rises as a result of lower salt intake. Tierney goes on to quote the recent Cochrane Collaboration meta-review that concluded that there was little evidence for any long-term benefits of salt reduction. He also referred to two very recent studies that have shown that congestive heart failure patients who are put on low sodium diet (the gold standard in most medical practice) were much more likely to die or be rehospitalized than those placed on regular salt diets. Tierney also made reference to the recent University of Iowa study in rats demonstrating that salt was an essential component to dispel depression and enjoy normally pleasurable activities.
The author ended by stating what we have long believed at the Salt Institute. Policies that end up arbitrarily placing people on a restricted salt regime will effectively put consumers into one of the largest clinical trials ever carried out, without their knowledge or consent.
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