SaltSensibility

The U.S. Department of Agriculture released results of the 2005-2006 NHANES database today. Entitled "What we eat in America," you're probably going to read about it in the MSM. I doubt you'll read in the newspapers what you read here.

This survey of what Americans eat and how it relates to their health and mortality has been conducted for about 35 years. The 9,349 individuals are selected to be a cross-section of American society.

Analyses of earlier NHANES reports (I, II and III) have consistently and convincingly disparaged the notion that those on low-salt diets enjoy any health advantages. See, for example, the analysis of NHANES III on this point presented recently to the annual meeting of the Canadian Society of Clinical Nutrition.

The 2005-2006 data will eventually be combined with health outcomes data allowing this analysis. For now, however, we have the nutrient intake data. The sodium data is on page 4. Those data unmask another shibboleth employed by crusaders for universal salt reduction, namely that African Americans and Mexican immigrants are particularly prone to consume "excess sodium" putting themselves at a health risk.

The data tell a different tale. Whatever the ultimate health outcomes of these groups, don't blame salt intake. The average American in 2005-2006 consumed 3,436 milligrams of sodium a day -- the same as it's been for a century or more and smack dab in the middle of the global range of population intakes, contrary to anti-salt proselytizers' contention that Americans eat an abnormally high amount of salt.

Compare the average 3,436 mg/day to these groups; what do you find? African Americans ("non-Hispanic blacks" in the government's nomenclature) consumed only 3,257 mg/day. That is 5% less than average and 8% less than Caucasians. For Mexican Americans the difference is greater still; Hispanics eat only 3,162 mg/day of sodium, 8% less than average and more than 10% less than whites.

The Salt Institute has argued that we need to focus more on total quality diet; our opponents have explicitly rejected that policy direction, arguing that sodium/salt reduction would be superior. Let's follow the data. African Americans are the identified priority beneficiaries of salt reduction, its proponents say. Experts have argued that dietary potassium is an excellent indicator of a qualty diet: the higher the potassium, the better the diet. These new USDA data show African Americans eating 14% less potassium than average. The data support our call for an emphasis on overall dietary improvement, not salt reduction.

It's been another bad month for the anti-salt crowd. In early July, other USDA data showed no change in Americans' sodium consumption over the past 40 years, disproving the argument that our increased consumption of processed foods has led to an increase in sodium intake. Not so, said USDA. Then, the study they welcomed as "definitive," actually disproved their contention that salt worsened asthmatic conditions. Pesky data, those.

Posted by Dick Hanneman at 11:11 PM | Permalink

In matters of worker safety, everyone is a winner.

Results are in for the 2008 Metal/Nonmetal and International Mine Rescue Contest. Congratulations to Cargill Deicing Technology's Whiskey Island team from the Cleveland, OH mine for its salt industry-leading overall 6th place award. Joe Desko is the team leader.

The program is sponsored by the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration. Ten teams from eight countries participated. Host Team U.S.A. finished fourth.

Salt mine rescue teams were well represented among the leaders in the several individual skills competitions.

In the multi-gas instrument benchman contest, Ryan Weese of Cargill's Whiskey Island team took 2nd, Steve Allanson on Cargill's second Cleveland team, Cuyahoga River, finished 4th and Don Maxfield from Morton Salt's Grand Saline, TX "Team Texas" earned 6th place.

Cody Rossbach, Cargill Deicing Technology's Cayuga mine (Lansing, NY), garnered third place in the BG-4 Benchman competition.

And Cargill's Avery Island, LA mine "Rescue Runners" first aid team of Ward Broussard, Marty Menard and Lynn Bayard placed 5th in their competition.

See our earlier post for salt inductees into the Mine Rescue Hall of Fame.

Posted by Dick Hanneman at 03:17 PM | Permalink

Snow Drifts is the monthly e-newsletter of the Snow and Ice Management Association (SIMA) offering "Articles by Snow People, For Snow People." The July issue features my article "Salt Supply and the Snow & Ice Contractor 2008/2009 Season" explaining the challenges salt suppliers face in providing road salt to the small private contractors who are SIMA members.

Posted by Dick Hanneman at 11:57 AM | Permalink

Salt Institute member Salinen Austria has just re-launched its presence on the Internet with clean and attractive new website. Check it out.

Posted by Dick Hanneman at 10:41 AM | Permalink

Earlier today, former Google engineers launched the Internet's newest, biggest search engine, Cuil. Pronounce it "cool." Cuil has indexed 120 billion Web pages and claims to deliver the results three times faster than any other search engine. It's worth a look. Cuil claims its search algorithm is based on content quality, not page popularity (we'd like to think they're right).

A search on "salt" produced a near-instantaneous 130 million results. Predictably, and reassuringly, the Salt Institute's website ranked #1. Ditto a search on "sodium chloride."

Posted by Dick Hanneman at 11:48 PM | Permalink

If you live in California, particularly if they have home water softeners -- or if you have friends of the salt industry in California -- you need to take a look at a new website "Don't let the politicians take your water softener." The site offers an easy way for California citizens to register opposition to CA AB2270.

If passed, AB 2270 would allow the government to intrude into a private residence and remove an appliance. If your softener is banned, your pipes, appliances and even clothes will fall apart faster and your energy costs will increase.

The Salt Institute opposes the bill.

The Legislature will act in August. If you value your water softener, the time to act is NOW.

Posted by Dick Hanneman at 04:18 PM | Permalink

Measured by the number of media calls, requests for Salt Institute presentations and webinars and trade press articles, the "salt shortage" stories of last winter were just a warm-up for what we can expect in the coming months. Latest evidence: a story in the Elyria, OH Chronicle-Telegram by reporter Brad Dicken which extracted the pearl of our interview when he told readers:

Although increased fuel and transportation costs are contributing factors to the rise in prices — asphalt also shot up in price this year — last year’s hard winter led to the nation using more salt than normal and leading to an increased demand this year, said Richard Hanneman, president of the Salt Institute.

What a market! Last year's 20.3 million tons of road salt was the second-highest ever. But the year before, 2006, we sold only 12.1 million tons, lowest since 1998. And the year earlier, 2005, set the all-time record of 20.5 million tons. Not too many industries are asked to boost sales by two-thirds in a year as the salt industry did from 2006 to 2007. And, from publicly announced bid amounts we've seen so far this year, agencies want even more.

Posted by Dick Hanneman at 06:08 PM | Permalink

It's always gratifying to hear someone saying you're doing a good job. It's especially gratifying when they know what they're talking about.

True Value announced its top suppliers last month and named North American Salt, a unit of Compass Minerals as its 2007 Supplier of the Year in the lawn & garden category. Compass Minerals announced the honor today. Congratulations.

Posted by Dick Hanneman at 05:23 PM | Permalink

Dr. Hillel Cohen of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, NYC and author of several health outcomes studies of the NHANES database, delivered a PowerPoint presentation recently to the Canadian Society of Clinical Nutrition's annual scientific meeting in Toronto. CSCN has rendered a valuable service by putting the presentation online.

Posted by Dick Hanneman at 11:12 PM | Permalink

34 Mine Rescue teams faced off July 15-17 in Reno, NV in the MSHA-sponsored 2008 Metal/Nonmetal National Mine Rescue contest. Seven salt companies participated: Morton Salt teams from Grand Saline, TX; Fairport, OH; and Weeks Island, LA; and Cargill Deicing Technology teams from Avery Island, LA; Cayuga mine in Lansing, NY; and two teams from Cargill's Cleveland, OH mine (Whiskey Island and Cuyahoga River). Still awaiting final results, but local coverage featured Cargill's Avery Island team showcasing their lifesaving skills. I'll re-post when the final results are in.

In related news, MSHA announced seven inductees into the Mine Rescue All of Fame including three from salt companies, Rod Etie and Rayward Segura of Cargill's Avery Island, LA mine, and Lee Graham who retired from then-SI member Carey Salt in 1988. Segura was a participant in the inaugural competition in 1971 when the contest was conducted in Lafayette, LA. Congratulations.

Posted by Dick Hanneman at 06:28 PM | Permalink

Highway departments are understandably concerned to have enough salt this winter after last year's severe snowfighting season left them scrambling for scarce supplies and entirely emptied the "salt pipeline" everywhere from mines to customer storage facilities. Many increased their bids, putting even more pressure on salt production and distribution. The consequences surfaced in the form of higher bid prices; an example is this from Sandusky, OH.

Even working the mines around the clock, it's going to be tight this year. High water forced closure of the locks and dams on the upper Mississippi River for about four weeks and what consumers see as high gas prices at the pump are adding new costs to both production and, especially, salt distribution. Order early. Store a full year's supply. This age-old advice will be tested this winter.

Posted by Dick Hanneman at 07:55 AM | Permalink

The Salt Institute was among 40 associations which have asked Congress to delay implemention of Customs and Border Protection's "10+2 Rule" until the agency can test a prototype to ensure it is workable. The group argued that the new data requirements for U.S.-bound container shipments would cost $20 billion, raising the cost of doing business and raising consumer prices. Rather than enhance homeland security, the measure "creates new security threats by greatly increasing the opportunity for containers to be tampered with" during the additional time needed for the more extensive clearing procedures, the letter avers.

Posted by Dick Hanneman at 06:53 PM | Permalink

The website of WASH (World Action on Salt and Health) states that a double-blind study of modest salt restriction caused a reduction in the severity of asthma attacks and a reduction in the use of medication and an improvement in the measurement of airways resistance. The article concludes with a statement:

"It seems therefore that, while salt is not a direct cause of asthma, a high salt intake can act as a major aggravating factor."

"There is evidence that bronchial reactivity in people with asthma is linked with salt intake. A recent review of epidemiological and intervention studies demonstrated that reducing salt intake may help to reduce the severity of an asthma attack and other breathing problems."

On page 15 of the CSPI (Center for Science in the Public Interest) book, Salt-The Forgotten Killer it states that:

"High-salt diets impair lung function and worsen asthma symptoms"

The NHLBI (National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute) paper on salt and health, A Critical Review of Current Scientific Evidence indicates in their opening section on sodium intake and non-CVD conditions that:

"Several studies have shown direct associations between sodium intake and other conditions, including ....indicators of asthma."

All four websites claim to be portraying good science, responsible science, all in the public's interest, yet, all four made the relationship between salt and asthma as if there were a solid scientific relationship between the two. Grasping at whatever straws they could to forward their own parochial agendas, they misinformed the public in this matter of health. It will be interesting to see how long it takes for them to retract their statements on the relationship between salt and asthma. It will also be interesting to see if they apologize to their readership for misinforming them.

Today, June 16, 2008, reports started coming in from, among others, CBS, the CBC and The Press Association of the long-anticipated definitive University of Nottingham study to examine the relationship between salt intakes and asthma. The University of Nottingham press release was emblazoned with the title, "Low-sodium advice for asthmatics should be taken with a pinch of salt." The conclusion of their story stated that the new study by researchers at The University of Nottingham found no evidence that cutting back on salt helps patients with their asthma symptoms.

Once more, we see clear incontrovertible evidence of a patently obvious anti-salt movement that is only too willing to spread myth-information and pseudo-science about an issue, long before the actual science has been definitively established.

As I mentioned above, we will be revisiting the websites of these "scientists" in future to see how quickly they correct their misinformation and apologize for it. This may well show "the measure of the man."

Posted by Mort Satin at 01:35 PM | Permalink

Picking up where Scotland left off, KIng David School in Childwall, Liverpool, UK is considering banning home-packed school lunches.

Junkfood Science blew the whistle on that one, opining: "Imagine being able to make a law eliminating competing products and convince people it’s for the children."

Apparently the British mania for food faddism continues. The LIverpool Echo quotes the chairwoman of governors at the school explaining the need to prevent students from consuming low-quality lunches packed by their mothers, explaining "We are amazed at what we find in children's lunch boxes. Some even come in with doughnuts." Can you IMAGINE? Doughnuts in a school lunch? The chair of a local charity, the Child Growth Foundation, joined the chorus: "If parents send in rubbish in lunch boxes, then the school has got to ban them." The "charity" is funded by the UK government.

Posted by Dick Hanneman at 12:29 PM | Permalink

The cover story of reason magazine's August/September issue ranks America's 35 largest cities with regard to their "nanny-state" proclivities. The rankings include the libertarian rag's judgment on each city's ordinances and community profile in eight areas: sex, tobacco, alcohol, guns, traffic enforcement, drugs, gambling and food/other. Our interest, naturally, is on "food/other." Perhaps unsurprisingly, when it comes to active "food police" atmosphere, San Francisco is America's most-nannying city, followed by New York, Los Angeles and Seattle. At the polar extreme was a six-way tie (listed in reverse order of each city's overall nannying score): Miami (overall #2), Denver (overall #3), Milwaukee, Jacksonville, Atlanta, and Detroit (Las Vegas, the overall #1 slipped to a tie for 7th in politically-correct food enforcement. Here's the list

Least nannying: Miami, Denver, Milwaukee, Jacksonvill, Atlanta, Detroit
Tie for 7th place: Las Vegas, Portland, Phoenix, Cleveland, Washington-DC, Columbus, Charlotte
Tie for 14th place: Louisville, Ft. Worth, San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, Indianapolis, Houston, El Paso
Tie for 22nd place: Kansas City, Memphis, Nashville
Tie for 25th place: Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston
28th place: Chicago
Tie for 29th place: Oakland, San Jose San Diego
32nd place: Seattle
33rd place: Los Angeles
34th place: New York City
35th place (worst nanny-state city): San Francisco

Posted by Dick Hanneman at 12:55 AM | Permalink

A new study in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism found that "Prolonged iodized salt significantly improves maternal thyroid economy and reduces the risk of maternal thyroid insufficiency during gestation, probably because of a nearly restoring intrathyroidal iodine stores."

Women who used salt for at least two years before becomng pregnant avoided thyroid failure during pregnancy. The Italian research team found in its study of 100 women, 62 of whom were "long-term" users of iodized salt and 38 of whom were not. The short-term group had a six-fold greater incidence on thyroid failure.

Posted by Dick Hanneman at 11:55 AM | Permalink

Lest we forget the largest wetlands restoration project in the U.S. is underway at Cargill Salt's former saltworks on the south end of San Francisco Bay. This blog post reminds us that the project is "Enormous by any standards, ... the largest of its kind in the country and it could be decades before the ebb and flow of the tide can work its magic and restore this massive chunk of San Francisco Bay without hurting the birds and beasts that have grown used to their current habitat."

Posted by Dick Hanneman at 11:25 AM | Permalink

At 7:02 am this morning, Rohm and Haas announced it has sold its business to chemical giant Dow Chemical; the sale includes Morton Salt. Rohm and Haas chairman and CEO Raj Gupta said combining the companies offered "transformative" potential. Dow chairman and CEO Andrew Liveris used the same word, "transformative," in Dow's release.

Each company has a spate of specialty businesses. The combination makes Dow "the world's preeminent chemical business," said Gupta. Dow will continue to operate Rohm and Haas as a separate unit and, in fact, transfer some of its exisitng speciality chemical businesses under the Rohm and Haas structure. Rohm and Haas will continue to operate its Philadelphia headquarters.

Dow offered $78 a share for the acquisition. Rohm and Haas closed yesterday at $44.83 in weak trading. Its 52-week high was $62.68.

Salt Institute president Richard L. Hanneman noted that Dow Chemical started its business as a salt-based chemical company in Midland, MI, where it is still headquartered. "Most people are surprised to learn that the single largest use of salt isn't to prepare our foods or keep our winter roads safe, but as the feedstock to the world's chlor-alkali industry, the same as petroleum is the feedstock to the petrochemical industry. "Chlorine chemistry touches every aspect of our lives," Hanneman explained.

Posted by Dick Hanneman at 08:05 AM | Permalink

In response to a direct question today at a food industry conference in Chicago, Dr. Lawrence Appel who chaired the "objective" Institute of Medicine sodium review and then chaired the 2005 Dietary Guidelines sodium guideline panel, denied he is a member of the anti-salt lobby group, World Action on Salt and Health. Apparently WASH hasn't received his letter of resignation since its website still lists him as member #268.

Fellow WASH partisan, Michael Jacobson (#189) told the group "we've tried voluntary action (to curtail salt intakes) and it doesn't work." Contrasting the US and UK, he declared that the UK government "is interested in public health" (ergo the US government isn't) and, finally, he allowed that salt reduction is easy, and the UK has made dramatic strides with miniscule resources -- only two full time bureaucrats, he stated.

Other speakers added a modicum of balance. Dr. Connie Diekman of Washington University in St. Louis and immediate past president of the American Dietetic Association explained her group's devotion to an evidence-based approach and refused to pre-judge its ongoing review. Grocery Manufacturers Association Senior Nutrition Policy Director Bob Earl again endorsed the Salt Institute's call for a controlled trial of the health outcomes of salt-reduced diets. He noted that the suggested weekly menu to implement USDA's My Pyramid diet guideline provides 2,900 mg/day sodium. Alana Moshfegh, senior researcher at USDA, characterized her presentation as a "reality show" amongst the anti-salt presenters and said salt usage has grown only 3% since 1980 (even that's an overstatement; as she spoke, her colleagues in Beltsville, MD were releasing data showing no increase at all).

For our non-US readers, the headline references the latest dust-up in the US presidential race where presumptive Democratic nominee, Chicagoan Barack Obama, announced those who interpreted his post-primary statements as changed positions "haven't apparently been listening to me" and GOP nominee-presumptive John McCain joined the argument.

Posted by Dick Hanneman at 11:45 PM | Permalink

Mort and I are at a meeting in Chicago this week. Today, the usual anti-salt crowd (Michael Jacobson, Larry Appel, et al) told a food industry conference that they should be concerned that Americans' appetite for salt is greater today than ever before. We've contended there hasn't been much change in a century.

Returning to my hotel room, I found a new database just announced by the US Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service tracking the nutrient composition of the US diet back nearly 100 years. For perspective, the government's NHANES database figures Americans take in about 3,400 mg/day of dietary sodium.

In this database, “Food Availability (Per Capita) Data System,” USDA analysts estimate that per-capita daily sodium intake has increased 10 milligrams and has had swings of only about +/- 40 milligrams throughout the entire last half century, 1955-2005 (the latest data).

Maybe bit by bit our "truth squad" can get this debate to focus on facts. Everyone's entitled to their opinion; no one is entitled to their own facts.

Just for our readers' information, summarizing some of the changes in other nutrients since 1970, the analysis found in 2005 each American consumed (on average) 80 more pounds of commercially grown vegetables than in 1970, plus 56 more pounds of grain products and 34 more pounds of fruit. On the other hand, the numbers show the average American ate 55 fewer eggs and drank 10 gallons less milk and nine gallons less coffee. Protein intake shifted in favor of poultry (40 more pounds), cheese (20 more pounds), and fish (4 more pounds of boneless, trimmed equivalent), but with a 17-pound drop in red meat. Americans ate 31-pounds more in fat and oil additives and 23-pounds more of sweeteners. Gosh, maybe salt ISN'T the culprit in our "obesity epidemic." The data also track the well-known concern for calcium deficiency, especially in early-teenage girls. The ten gallons/year drop in milk represents 34 milligrams a day less calcium (mineral deficiencies, of course, are a trigger for salt-sensitive changes in blood pressure and a major reason why the Salt Institute has so strongly supported the DASH Diet, high in fruits, vegetables and dairy products.

We appreciate the IFT Weekly Newsletter 's help in crunching these numbers.

Posted by Dick Hanneman at 10:39 PM | Permalink

Historically, aldosterone was considered a hormone released from the adrenal cortex in response to low salt intakes. It was thought to exert its effects solely through mineralocorticoid receptors, thereby causing sodium retention and potassium loss. More recently, however, a much wider role for aldosterone has been recognized.

Research efforts have revealed a host of new pathophysiologic mechanisms associated with elevated aldosterone that could be expected to contribute to the progression of congestive heart failure and sudden cardiovascular death.

More importantly, the recent evidence is based upon research into the actual metabolic mechanisms rather than epidemiological or observational studies, which are generally open to a range of mechanistic interpretations and confounding errors. A growing body of evidence suggests that aldosterone contributes to heart disease through endothelial dysfunction. The endothelium is the thin layer of cells that line the interior surface of all blood vessels. It serves as the interface between the circulating blood and the rest of the vessel wall. The condition of the endothelium plays a critical role in the regulation of vascular tone, platelet aggregation within the vessel, the adhesion of leukocytes and overall blood coagulation. When the endothelium is not right, as in endothelial dysfunction, it is predictive of future cardiovascular events.

Because low salt diets stimulate elevated aldosterone levels, this phenomenon may very well explain the repeated findings that more people on low salt diets succumb to cardiovascular disease than those on normal or high salt diets, which we reported on previously.

In the past, experimental studies have focused on the pathological effects of angiotensin II, rather than aldosterone, and demonstrated that angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors confer significant cardiovascular protection. However, more recently, research has revolutionized our view of aldosterone and its biological actions, and identified mineralocorticoids as important mediators of cardiovascular injury. Elevated aldosterone levels can cause cardiovascular injury without raising the blood pressure, and aldosterone blockers can exert significant protective effects without lowering the blood pressure.

Infants born with a low birth weights tend to have higher aldosterone levels when they are older. This corresponds to recent research, which we previously reported on demonstrating that low birth weight babies are also born with low sodium in their blood serum because their mothers were on low salt intakes.

The current evidence concludes that that a long-term increase in aldosterone production from early on in life is determined by an interaction of genetic and environmental factors, such as diets that are low in salt. This leads to cardiovascular damage in middle age and beyond. These results have been confirmed by at least two other studies, one from Israel and one from Japan, which further state that the current upper limit of 2300 mg sodium per day (6 g of salt), described in the Institute of Medicine Dietary Reference Intakes is insufficient to prevent the triggering of elevated aldosterone levels.

As more and more high quality evidence mounts on the malignant impact of elevated aldosterone levels upon cardiovascular function, it is hoped that the voice of the medical establishment and the new Dietary Guidelines on sodium will take this squarely into account.

Posted by Mort Satin at 11:10 AM | Permalink

As the title suggests, "Aphrodite, sex and salt," an article just published in the July issue of Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation is wide ranging in its medical and cultural purview.

The article describes "major effects on procreation, gestation and lactation" when humans reduce dietary salt intakes. Bernard Moinier, former staff executive of the European salt association and the French salt association, teamed with Dr. Tilman Drueke to explore neurophysiological mechanisms linking reproductive functions with salt appetite and hormone generation and conclude "a sodium replete state (is strongly related) to fertility and reproductive performance." Of particular note, they point out the hormonal changes that occur related to salt intake during pregnancy and remind us of "a reasonable degree of agreement that salt intake should not be reduced during pregnancy." This is an especially important finding because expectant mothers are the most important target for advice to use iodized salt.

Posted by Dick Hanneman at 05:53 PM | Permalink

Back in 2003, the Cochrane Collaboration published its evidence-based review of the health outcomes of reducing dietary salt, concluding:

Intensive interventions, unsuited to primary care or population prevention programmes, provide only minimal reductions in blood pressure during long-term trials. Further evaluations to assess effects on morbidity and mortality outcomes are needed for populations as a whole and for patients with elevated blood pressure.

Coming from the inventors of the term "evidence-based medicine," this should have caused reconsideration of the entire approach of universal salt reduction. It also pointed the way to resolving the ongoing conflict among medical experts about whether salt restriction should be part of recommended dietary guidelines: it called for "further evaluations to assess effects on morbidity and mortality outcomes...."

Since then, several new studies have been published on the health outcomes of low-salt diets; they haven't confirmed a benefit.

So the Cochrane Collaboration has re-issued its 2003 Review, unchanged.

Proponents of evidence-based nutrition recommendations should use the 2008 version to counter the statistically-creative, substantively-deficient, blood pressure-centric arguments posited by proponents of the status quo. As this re-publication reminds us, it's time to sweep away opinion-based recommendations and replace them with sceince-based guidelines.

Posted by Dick Hanneman at 11:15 AM | Permalink

We have all sorts of animal studies trying to discover mechanisms of human physical and psychological function. Rat studies, dog studies. But...worm studies?

Researchers at the University of Oregon have discovered that woms perform a calculus based on their sensing of salt to determine whether to proceed straight ahead (high salt) or stop and consider other options. If this were the Calaveras County (CA) jumping frog race, we'd put our money on the high-salt roundworm.

Read about it in the July 3 edition of Nature as reported in advance by Physorg.com from which was gleaned this explanatory graphic. A spike in salt concentration in ASEL (left neuron) activates expression that leads a worm to proceed in a straight line. A dip in salt levels in ASER (right neuron) turns on a negative reaction that tells a worm to change to a turning movement to look around.

Graphic courtesy of Shawn Lockery.

Posted by Dick Hanneman at 06:08 PM | Permalink

Using as examples the role of salt in combatting lymphatic filariasis and iodine deficiency, the cover story of the June issue of Geotimes devoted six pages to "Salt of the Earth: the pubilc health community employs a mineral to fight infectious disease." Pointing out that its economy and ubiquity make salt the "ideal vehicle" to fortify with minerals or medications, author Cassandra Willyard concludes: "The saltshaker has become one of the most powerful weapons in the public health arsenal."

The article recounts the pioneering public health efforts to combat iodine deficiency by iodizing salt, quoting Venkatesh Mannar, executive director of the Ottawa-based Micronutrient Intitiative, explaining that salt is the "food that comes closest to being universally consumed." Salt is preferred because "the risk of overdose is minimal because everyone eats a predictable amount."

Building on the success of salt iodization, salt was fortified with other additives, first fluoride to prevent dental caries and then chloroquine to prevent malaria and most recently DEC (diethylcarbamazine) to combat lymphatic filariasis. Willyard featured the World Health Organization's ongoing work with DEC-fortified salt in Haiti and Guyana.

The article also broaches the question of the adequacy of iodine nutrition in the U.S. where substitution of processed foods using plain salt for home-cooked meals using iodized salt has led to a gradual decline in iodine intake levels. Willyard includes the Salt Institute's views, noting "officials may think about adding iodized salt to processed foods, Hanneman says. The important things, he adds, is to keep monitoring."

Posted by Dick Hanneman at 03:49 PM | Permalink