Each person can have their own opinion, not their own facts
Today's Wall Street Journal carried a story on "Why we need less sodium." While the question may provoke different opinions, I'm reminded of the observation that everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but nobody is entitled to their own facts.
The article collects oft-repeated myths, perpetuating public confusion. Consider:
- Americans consume the average amount of salt of societies around the world. The article states we consume "15 times" too much. The National Academy of Sciences says humans can survive on 500 mg. But good health requires more.
- The article states that salt intake has increased “50% since the 1970s.” The truth is that per capita salt intakes haven't increased at all. Not since the 1970s and not in the past century. That’s a total fabrication.
- Thus, the implication is that we eat too much salt. That is unfounded. Those with the best health outcomes consume salt at current levels. At the government’s “recommended” 2,300 mg level, cardiovascular mortality is actually higher, more than a third greater (37%), according to the federal government’s own National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
National policy should be based on more than opinion and that there should be a controlled trial to establish whether reducing dietary salt improves health. Evidence-based groups like the government’s U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and the Cochrane Collaboration which invented the concept, have concluded that there is insufficient evidence to ask everyone to reduce salt. Unfotunately, the article doesn't even hint at the controversy among expert scientists.
Comments
Log in or create a user account to comment.