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Wait, I thought the science was settled.

LowDown

LowDown

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CDC says Americans still consume too much, but studies show no benefit in reducing salt | KFOR.com

A recent report commissioned by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) reviewed the health benefits of reducing salt intake and the take-home message is that salt, in the quantities consumed by most Americans, is no longer considered a substantial health hazard. What the CDC study reported explicitly is that there is no benefit, and may be a danger, from reducing our salt intake below 1 tsp per day.
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Some of us have known this for a while, but the error in terms of what the public was being told went uncorrected for a long time because scientific consensus.
 
1 teaspoon is not a lot of salt.
It's 5ml or 5mg. That's very little salt.

Basically, if you make french fries at home, and you put your fingers in the salt to salt the chips, you put more than 5mg in there. If you lick your fingers after you put the salt in the chips, you really went overboard :p. The fries at McDonalds have a LOT more salt than just 5mg.

So yeah. a lot of salt intake is bad for you. No salt intake over long periods of time could affect you too.
 
Rainman05 said:
1 teaspoon is not a lot of salt.
It's 5ml or 5mg. That's very little salt.

Basically, if you make french fries at home, and you put your fingers in the salt to salt the chips, you put more than 5mg in there. If you lick your fingers after you put the salt in the chips, you really went overboard :p. The fries at McDonalds have a LOT more salt than just 5mg.

So yeah. a lot of salt intake is bad for you. No salt intake over long periods of time could affect you too.
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There is about 2,400 mg of sodium in tablespoon of salt not 5 mg.

Sodium chloride or table salt is approximately 40% sodium. Understand just how much sodium is in salt so you can take measures to control your intake.


1/4 teaspoon salt = 600 mg sodium
1/2 teaspoon salt = 1,200 mg sodium
3/4 teaspoon salt = 1,800 mg sodium
1 teaspoon salt = 2,400 mg sodium

Shaking the Salt Habit
 
LowDown said:
CDC says Americans still consume too much, but studies show no benefit in reducing salt | KFOR.com



Some of us have known this for a while, but the error in terms of what the public was being told went uncorrected for a long time because scientific consensus.
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I dont think the article means what you think it means.

The consensus on sodium/salt intake has been roughly the same for the last thirty years. That science is about as settled as AGW.

The findings of this report (which ironically, is a consensus report - not an original study) show that low sodium diets are appropriate to minimize the risks of cerebrovascular and heart disease, but there is no good evidence that more aggressive sodium intake below 2.4 grams per day is beneficial. But 2.5 gram sodium diets are really hard to follow and would be considered massive salt restriction by most Americans. The previous recommendation was in certain cases, to lower intake to 1.5 g per day - which is a ridiculous diet, and hardly any patients can maintain it anyway.


In either case, I'm sure you didnt know this, unless you are in the medical field working with hypertension or congestive heart failure, and realize that high levels of sodium in your diet are known, and remain known, to lead to higher rates of hypertension, stroke, heart attacks and kidney failure. And thats the consensus.
 
Threegoofs said:
I dont think the article means what you think it means.

The consensus on sodium/salt intake has been roughly the same for the last thirty years. That science is about as settled as AGW.

The findings of this report (which ironically, is a consensus report - not an original study) show that low sodium diets are appropriate to minimize the risks of cerebrovascular and heart disease, but there is no good evidence that more aggressive sodium intake below 2.4 grams per day is beneficial. But 2.5 gram sodium diets are really hard to follow and would be considered massive salt restriction by most Americans. The previous recommendation was in certain cases, to lower intake to 1.5 g per day - which is a ridiculous diet, and hardly any patients can maintain it anyway.


In either case, I'm sure you didnt know this, unless you are in the medical field working with hypertension or congestive heart failure, and realize that high levels of sodium in your diet are known, and remain known, to lead to higher rates of hypertension, stroke, heart attacks and kidney failure. And thats the consensus.
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Interesting. What did you think I thought it meant? Can you provide documentation concerning what I thought?

I am in the medical field, and I did know that the draconian low salt diets customarily used provide no benefit.

Why the gratuitous, sneering disbelief? Did I piss you off in another thread?
 
LowDown said:
Interesting. What did you think I thought it meant? Can you provide documentation concerning what I thought?

I am in the medical field, and I did know that the draconian low salt diets customarily used provide no benefit.

Why the gratuitous, sneering disbelief? Did I piss you off in another thread?
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Actually, I DID confuse you with someone else.... a guy who consistently makes fun of consensus on global warming despite not understanding what consensus means. So... sorry.

But this really isnt a big change in terms of what was known. Its just the IOM putting its stamp on the issue to get the guys who write guidelines to move along and change recommendations across the board (JNC on HTN, HF, ACC, etc) and spur the NIH into considering funding of trials that were placed into their recommendation. So the consensus was already there (because the studies were there), it just hasnt been incorporated into the various treatment guidelines.

A super low salt diet tends to be a nice recommendation, but virtually impossible to follow unless you are institutionalized on a strict diet.
 
Rainman05 said:
1 teaspoon is not a lot of salt.
It's 5ml or 5mg. That's very little salt.
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Sorry to be a stickler, but 1 teaspoon of salt is not equal to 5 mg. It is equal to 6 grams of salt (NaCl) which is about equal to 2.3 grams of sodium (Na).
 
vash1012 said:
Sorry to be a stickler, but 1 teaspoon of salt is not equal to 5 mg. It is equal to 6 grams of salt (NaCl) which is about equal to 2.3 grams of sodium (Na).
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I'm not talking about sodium, I didn't even tackle sodium, I'm talking about salt. And I looked it up on the internet, it said 5mg. I am not saying you're wrong, but imperial measuring units are stupid and nobody should ever use them.
 
Rainman05 said:
I'm not talking about sodium, I didn't even tackle sodium, I'm talking about salt. And I looked it up on the internet, it said 5mg. I am not saying you're wrong, but imperial measuring units are stupid and nobody should ever use them.
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I already addressed the difference between salt and sodium in my response to you. Salt is Sodium Chloride. 1 teaspoon of salt is equal to 6 grams of salt, which consists of only 2.4 grams of sodium, which is what was previously thought to be linked to health issues. 5 mg is 5 MILLIGRAMS as in 1/1000th of a gram so you are off by a bit.
 
LowDown said:
CDC says Americans still consume too much, but studies show no benefit in reducing salt | KFOR.com



Some of us have known this for a while, but the error in terms of what the public was being told went uncorrected for a long time because scientific consensus.
Click to expand...

Your renal system is pretty amazing. Shocking, I know. If you were to eat 10g of salt, your body will simply reabsorb 10 grams less than normal out of your filtrate (urine). If only your GI tract could show such restraint. :lol:

That said, foods with a lot of salt often are pretty terrible for you in a lot of other ways besides its salt concentration. But focusing on salt is definitely not the way to go, because many really healthy foods such as chicken breast or eggs/ egg whites naturally have a high salt concentration. Its stupid how many of these so called "experts" really can't see the forest for the trees on issues like this.
 
ReformCollege said:
Your renal system is pretty amazing. Shocking, I know. If you were to eat 10g of salt, your body will simply reabsorb 10 grams less than normal out of your filtrate (urine). If only your GI tract could show such restraint. :lol:

That said, foods with a lot of salt often are pretty terrible for you in a lot of other ways besides its salt concentration. But focusing on salt is definitely not the way to go, because many really healthy foods such as chicken breast or eggs/ egg whites naturally have a high salt concentration. Its stupid how many of these so called "experts" really can't see the forest for the trees on issues like this.
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Nope. Your kidneys CAN excrete the salt, but generally don't. That's why high sodium diets will increase blood pressure (and associated third spacing/fluid retention) quite predictably, and that marginally higher pressure causes stroke and atherosclerotic disease.
 
Threegoofs said:
Nope. Your kidneys CAN excrete the salt, but generally don't. That's why high sodium diets will increase blood pressure (and associated third spacing/fluid retention) quite predictably, and that marginally higher pressure causes stroke and atherosclerotic disease.
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Did you just say your kidneys don't excrete salt? You have got to be ****ting me, they do it 24/7.
 
ReformCollege said:
Did you just say your kidneys don't excrete salt? You have got to be ****ting me, they do it 24/7.
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No. Ive calculated FENa on enough patients not to know this...

I said they don't excrete ALL excess salt. That's why salt intake tends to lead to edema, increased blood volume, and hypertension.
 
However, they can predict with amazing accuracy, [insert sad chuckle here] sea level's, climate and weather patterns 50 years from now.
 
It's not the low salt perhaps but the lack of trace iodine. Or could be both.
 
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Threegoofs said:
No. Ive calculated FENa on enough patients not to know this...

I said they don't excrete ALL excess salt. That's why salt intake tends to lead to edema, increased blood volume, and hypertension.
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Fair enough. What about in athletes/ highly active patients? My understanding has been that other aspects such as diet, exercise, body comp play are more of a factor of how much salt your body absorbs compared to just salt intake alone.
 
mak2 said:
If you dont have HTN [hypertension], salt doesnt matter. If you do, it does.
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The article contradicts you:

One study from 2011, followed 28,800 subjects with high blood pressure ages 55 and older. The study followed them for 4.7 years and measured their salt intake through urinalysis. The report stated the risks of heart attacks, strokes, congestive heart failure and death from heart disease increased significantly for those consuming more than 7,000 milligrams of sodium a day and for those consuming fewer than 3,000 milligrams of sodium a day.
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You could eat 7 MacDonald's Big Macs in a day, and drink water, and just reach that 7,000 mg of sodium. Not thinking that salt matters a whole bunch with hypertension.
 
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