"Take all those health warnings about table salt with a pinch of salt. The evidence that our current levels of salt consumption do more harm than good for human health has little weight, any which way you look at it," opines Lawrence Solomon in the Financial Post .
Should we dismiss all the studies showing a link between excess salt consumption and human health? No, each represents a small piece in the giant jigsaw puzzle that is the enigma of the workings of the human body. Some studies indicate, for example, that salt intake is related to blood pressure and blood pressure is in turn related to various ailments. Some demographic sectors of society -- in particular various African American subsets -- tend to be salt-sensitive, making them subject to salt-related conditions that Caucasians are impervious to.
But none of the many studies into salt has justified the generalized leap that some make in assuming a harmful health effect -- none has ever shown, for example, that salt consumption increases overall death rates, or death rates from cardiovascular diseases, or from heart attack or from any other cause.
On the other hand, studies do point to increased risk of heart attack and higher death rates among some individuals on low-salt diets.