The Great Salt Conspiracy Theory
78The Danger of Low-Salt Diets
Theory or no theory, the FDA's recent move to limit salt in American diets to newer, lower levels would not have to be a conspiracy. The power of popular misconception is potent enough to trigger foolish regulatory moves without anything deliberately sinister lurking behind the curtain. And it's true enough, according to numerous studies, that reducing salt in one's diet does reduce the likelihood of strokes in certain people.
But.
Those who put down salt as a valuable nutrient are still off base. Way off base. There's a reason that ranchers put out 50# iodized salt blocks for range cattle to lick during every month of the year. There's a reason that when our U.S. Army unit drilled under desert heat conditions, we were actually issued (wait for it) salt tablets.
Without salt, we're dead.
Put that in your shaker and shake it.
The conspiracy advocates believe the Forces of Evil actually wish to weaken our nation by weakening both our minds and bodies, thus making it easier for "Them" to take over and rule us as a nation of slaves with ye olde iron fist. While a great "hook" for a science fiction novel, later to be made into a blockbuster movie, the correct answer may be simplicity itself, i.e.,
The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.
After all, be it conspiracy or be it ignorance, the bottom line is the same: Taking salt from your diets is an effective way to go from musclebound superhero to 98-pound weakling getting sand kicked in his face...in one swell foop.
The Rest of the Story
It's commonplace to find stories in the mainstream media about the dangers of overdosing on sodium chloride...but few indeed are the articles warning about the dangers of salt deficiency. Even on the somewhat more balanced Internet (where anyone with an opinion has a shot at being heard), the imbalance is still considerable. To be sure of that, I just Googled both terms and found the following:
Google search term "salt overdose" yielded 2,120,000 results.
Google search term "salt deficiency" yielded 280,000 results.
Which only indicates the greater popular discussion of "too much" rather than "too little" sodium (and let's not forget the chloride aspect) in one's daily food supply. One of the more intriguing online articles discussing the need for both (sodium and chloride) in the animal body is a piece by Dr. Robert Young which states in part,
Salt is the life of the body! And, without liberal
amounts of whole unprocessed salt the body cannot
keep up with the daily onslaught of dietary and
metabolic acidity.
This is why I suggest eating lots of salt and getting
off acidic foods and drinks. When you do this, your
health, energy, happiness and fitness will naturally
improve - without medications!
Note that Dr. Young specifies whole unprocessed salt. How that differs from most of the sodium chloride we encounter at our favorite fast food joint--and what he's getting at with the mention of acidic foods and drinks--are topics for other days, other hubs, maybe even other conspiracy theories.
However, a few personal observations regarding table salt do fit right in here:
1. My body's sodium levels, at least as measured by a CBC (Complete Blood Count) done a few years back when my wife and my RN kid sister were both nagging me (that was a conspiracy!), tend to be "borderline"--i.e., slightly above or slightly below the maximum "permissible" amount as touted by the AMA.
2. I had a heart attack at 6 years of age and had my poisonous, mercury-laden teeth removed at age 49. Oh, yeah, and a hernia repair at age 62. Except for a sports and/or work injury here and there along the way, that's about it. Now past 67 and headed for 68, my health is excellent. In a pinch (!), I can still outwork any pair of 20-year-old guys you'd care to throw at me. That's not just theory, either; I've done it. Recently.
3. Salt? I inlude some of that with just about everything I ingest except for ice cream. (Mmmmm....sugar! Got corn syrup?)
So...what're you really saying here, Ghost?
Simply this: Open letter to the FDA, the Obama administration, and anyone else within hearing distance:
"HALT!! GIT YER MITTS OFFA MY SALT!!"
Or words to that effect.
CommentsLoading...
Thanks for commenting, Mike--and you just reminded me of the one and only time in my life that I got more salt than I bargained for.
I was about 25, working out of Deer Lodge, Montana, at an underground phosphate mine. Shift work. One of my favorite lunches was centered around my wife's AWESOME meat loaf. Best sandwiches in the world.
But day after day, week after week, I kept mentioning to her that when she made my lunch (yeah, young and dumb, daring to complain to the cook!), I'd like a little more salt on the meat loaf.
One night (I was on swing shift at the time) she got me good. Started to chow down on my sandwich, and--whoa!
Turned out she'd salted the meat white, then peppered it black, then salted it white again.
Had to admit that was a bit much...pepper!
I totally agree with you about the body craving what it needs. If we learn to pay attention, it's actually possible to distinguish between "addiction" cravings and "need-for-health" cravings.
Time for some Pringle potato chips. Nice and salty....:)
I no longer trust anything that the FDA says. They change their minds so often that it doesn't pay to listen. One minute hormones will save a woman's life and the next minute they are a a prescription for death!
Truthfully, Pop, I never DID trust anything the FDA said. Pam used to...but after a couple of years in close contact with me, she saw the light! :)
From what I understand, you don't need to worry about your salt intake unless you have high blood pressure.
Keep on hubbing!
Exactly. Which makes the government bossiness on the issue all that more eyebrow-raising.
Fred,,after reading up on why salt is in our food it makes sense why it's there at all. Well it started a long time ago actually centuries ago as a way to preserve food because we didn't have refridgeration. Salt would stop bacterias from growing on and in our food for as long as we kept it salted.We became addicted to the taste and now pour it on everything. Still though it is still used in most foods to preserve them.
I read that in New York , the city is passed a law limiting the use of salt in most foods to reduce the health care costs. There must be something to it because salt is not the biggest money making scheme around. Did you ever hear of anyone striking it rich by selling salt? I remember the blocks of salt out in the ranches in B.C.,when I was a kid and the Deer licked it more than the cows.It doesn't seem to hurt those critters ?
There must be something to it medically speaking ??
Roy, there is definitely SOMETHING to it medically speaking. The problem is, the "anti-salt, big government, tell ya what's good for ya and ram it down your throat" people are telling only one side of the story.
One remarkable medical tidbit I came across while reading up a bit on this...well, it's worth mentioning. I've long known quite a bit about various supplements, condiments, etc--made my living for more than 20 years in the alternative health/supplement field. But I'd missed this:
Potassium and salt work together to power the body. Got that. A huge overdose of either can be fatal. Got that. Deficiencies of either can be deadly, too. Yeah, understood that as well, though the anti-salties won't admit it. BUT: If there's a severe shortage, the body can CONVERT at least SOME of the salt TO POTASSIUM--but not, so far as I've been able to learn, the other way around.
Pass the salt, please!
What you trying to say is that if we stop using salt,we will need more medications to ward off our sicknesses. More money for the drug companies etc ? The stuff called No Salt is actually Potasium and there are warnings on the label not to use it the same as salt because it can harm you ?
By George, I think you've got it!
I didn't realize No Salt was actually potassium. Never have had my hands on the stuff that I can recall.
Pam does take Klor-Con prescription potassium tabs--regular horse pills for size--but only when she's also taking a diuretic to flush excess water. Lots of peeing = lots of potassium loss.
There are some folks who do need low-salt diets. But not all, and not even all of those diagnosed with (for example) high cholesterol. There's plenty of data out there showing that if you have that, clogged arteries, the whole bit, there's an enormously simpler and safer solution called EDTA. (You could try Googling that, see what I'm talkin' about.)
EDTA is an amino acid we have naturally in our bodies (or so sayeth the literature), but apparently we don't always have nearly enough of the stuff. Ads from companies selling EDTA supplements claimed that you could start taking their caps of EDTA powder...then start saving your urine in a quart jar. Overnight.
Then the next day you could swirl the yellow concoction around and watch a sort of "white tornado" going on inside the glass. Which would be plaque cleaned out of your blood vessels and dumped through the kidneys as your nasty arteries were being automatically Roto-Rootered.
Pam and I've both been using EDTA--AND SALT AS ALWAYS--since 2006. No surgically profitable heart attacks for us, thank you, no early bonus for the undertakers either. But our family members who aren't about to listen to little ol' us? One of my sisters has had a stent for years. Her husband is a walking (barely) clogged-artery time bomb. And Pam's brother is a big-time member of the Zipper Club with a quadruple heart bypass that took him out of the OTR trucking business a decade ago.
First EDTA I tried cost me a small fortune. Then I finally wised up, searched the 'Net, and began buying from a pharmaceutical-grade company that keeps us squared away for under $15 per month.
Old Poolman Level 7 Commenter 16 months ago
Fred, we share the same feelings regarding salt. My wife swears if she served me nothing but a plate of salt, I would salt it before I ate it. It is my understanding that when we get a craving for something, in many cases that is the body saying it needs something that is in that food. I just turned 73 and have not had so much as a cold or the flu for over 40 years. I have had a few visits to the surgeon myself, but these were due to my own stupidity and not in any way related to eating too much salt.
Glad to know I am not the only one who enjoys this wonderful topping on my food.