Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Salt - Good?

http://www.medpagetoday.com/Cardiology/Prevention/27426

The cardiovascular benefits of salt restriction remain unproven on the basis of currently available evidence, authors of a systematic review concluded.
The accumulation of clinical-trial data on 6,500 participants failed to produce a statistically significant outcome for hypertensive or normotensive individuals with respect to overall mortality or cardiovascular morbidity.
Moreover, salt restriction was associated with an increased mortality risk in patients with congestive heart failure (CHF), according to a report in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.
"There is still insufficient power to exclude clinically important effects of reduced dietary salt on mortality or cardiovascular morbidity in normotensive or hypertensive populations," Rod S. Taylor, PhD, of Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry in Exeter, England, and co-authors wrote in conclusion.
"Further randomized clinical trial evidence is needed to confirm whether restriction of sodium is harmful for people with heart failure. Our estimates of benefits from dietary salt restriction are consistent with the predicted small effects on clinical events attributable to the small blood pressure reduction achieved."

The War On Salt was mis-guided and thankfully, you can take comfort that you can eat salt without fear of injury - if you like it.

BTW - have some iodized salt at least weekly, for most of our modern diets, devoid of fish eyeballs, we don't get enough iodine to support healthy thyroid function.

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