Why Cut Back on Salt?

carl1738

NEW YORK - People who ate lots of salt were not more likely to get high blood pressure, and were less likely to die of heart disease than those with a low salt intake, in a new European study.

The findings "certainly do not support the current recommendation to lower salt intake in the general population," study author Dr. Jan Staessen, of the University of Leuven in Belgium, told Reuters Health.

Current salt guidelines, including those released by the U.S. government in January, are based on data from short-term studies of people who volunteered to be assigned to a low-salt or high-salt diet, Staessen said.


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The U.S. guidelines recommend that Americans consume less than 2,300 milligrams of salt daily - 1,500 mg in certain people who are more at risk for high blood pressure or heart disease.

While previous trials suggested a blood pressure benefit with lower salt intake, research has yet to show whether that translates into better overall heart health in the wider population.

The researchers used data from two different studies, incorporating a total of about 3,700 Europeans who had their salt consumption measured through urine samples at the start of the studies. Staessen and his colleagues broke the participants up into three groups: those with highest and lowest salt intakes, and those with average intake.

None of the participants had heart disease at the outset, and two thirds had normal blood pressure. They were followed for an average of 8 years, during which researchers determined how many of them were diagnosed with heart disease, and in a smaller group, how many got high blood pressure.

The findings are published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

The chance of getting heart and blood vessel diseases did not differ in the three groups. However, participants with the lowest salt intake had the highest rate of death from heart disease during the follow up (4 percent), and people who ate the most salt had the lowest (less than 1 percent).

Across all three salt-intake groups, about one in four study participants who started out with normal blood pressure were diagnosed with high blood pressure during follow up.

The researchers did find that one measure of blood pressure, systolic blood pressure, increased as salt intake increased over time - but the change was very small, so it may not be important to health outcomes, Staessen said.

Reducing salt may still be a good idea for people who already have high blood pressure or who have had heart problems in the past, he added, but the study found no evidence that dietary salt causes those conditions to arise.

"It's clear that one should be very careful in advocating generalized reduction in sodium intake in the population at large," Staessen said. "There might be some benefits, but there might also be some adverse effects."

Dr. Hillel Cohen, an epidemiologist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, told Reuters Health that when restaurants or food companies put less salt in their products, they may put in other potentially harmful products to make up for the lost taste, or as preservatives.

Consumers shouldn't change their salt-eating behavior based on the limited studies that have tried to determine the link between sodium and heart risks, added Cohen, who was not involved in the current research.

The authors caution that their analysis included only white Europeans, and so the results may not translate to people of other ethnicities.

wenders123

I never understand the obsession with 'sodium'. I think 'fat' is far more important to monitor.

fteale

I can't say I am totally surprised. I always had a high salt intake as a child (I used to add it to everything), and have always had very low blood pressure (really really low). When I was pregnant I cut back on my salt thinking it was the healthy thing to do, and started getting cramps constantly, dizzy spells, very bad swelling in my hands and feet. Then I read you actually need 25% more salt in pregnancy than you do normally, so second time round I ate as normal, and had none of the problems I did with my first.

If you eat a lot of processed food you probably do get a bit too much salt, but I am vegetarian and cook everything from scratch (and don't eat bread), and I need to add a fair bit of salt to my food to not get cramping. We are meant to have 6g a day. That's quite a bit, really, if you don't have it hidden in things like bread and cereal.

mboone4541

Two reasons, I think. One, if you are eating a lot of sodium it probably means you are eating a lot of processed foods. Two, this was from February:

February 9, 2011 (Los Angeles, California) — Sodium has already been linked to vascular disease, but a new study suggests that excessive intake may also heighten ischemic stroke risk.

"People who consumed more than 4000 mg per day of sodium had more than double the risk of stroke compared to those who consumed less than 1500 mg,"

significance

Interesting. I'm averaging less than 1000mg sodium/day, so I hope this isn't true. I think the preponderance of evidence is still that too much salt is bad for you, so (since I don't like the taste of salty food anyway), I think I'll stick with what I've been doing. But I'll keep an eye on the science news.

BigBoneSista

I've been doing well for keeping mine under 1500 on the regular unless I have some to eat out.

kadye

At a cellular level, water follows sodium. As sodium flows into the cells and water follows, causing you to "retain water".

bmontgomery87

I don't monitor my sodium intake.
No water retention trouble.
No blood pressure issues.

Losershawn

Bump

seansquared

Water retention happens when our bodies are sodium-starved, not sodium-full. Consistent water intake will flush out an overabundance of sodium anyway, and is just healthy in general. Sodium is also critical for proper muscle function (including your heart!) That isn't a thumbs-up to start eating spoonfuls of salt, but you really don't need to monitor sodium intake unless you've got a heart condition.

Finally, remember you can sweat out upwards of 2 GRAMS (2000mg) of Sodium in just an hour of hard exercise. So that 30 minutes on the treadmill means you probably just dropped 500-1000mg of salt right there - you need to replace it for proper functioning!

I don't monitor my sodium intake.
No water retention trouble.
No blood pressure issues.

Ditto here. There are bodybuilders who consume 5000-6000mg of sodium a day, too. Particularly during competition week