Eat your fruit and veggies -- further evidence
Since the DASH Diet was unveiled in 1997, the Salt Institute has been plugging for diets rich in fruits, vegetables and dairy products as an effective "treatment" for salt sensitivity. Salt-sensitive blood pressure virtually disappears when recommended amounts of calcium, magnesium and potassium are consumed and, it seems to us, it's a lot easier to eat "Five a Day" than cut back on salt. And safer, too. No studies have identified health risks with eating fruits, vegetables and dairy products in quantity whereas several have found higher rates of heart attacks and cardiovascular mortality among those eating what the government calls "healthy" (lower) levels of salt.
Today's publication in PLoS Medicine of a massive (20,244 persons) 14-year mortality study showed that four simple interventions -- increasing fruits and vegetables, becoming physically active, not smoking and consuming no more than moderate amounts of alcohol -- increased lifespan by 14 years.
Kay-Tee Khaw et al report that "the trends were strongest for cardiovascular causes." It's time we got serious about promoting the DASH Diet and stopped diverting resources to interventions like salt reduction which have been endorsed by experts but are unsupported by actual scientific evidence.
