“Salt Intake and the Food Police”
According to the “Food Police,” we should consume no salt, no sugar, no soda, no fatty foods, no red meat, no mercury-containing fish, and no fast foods. But, is there proof for these restrictions. Let’s focus on salt. Scientific studies have not consistently supported the assertion that salt causes high blood pressure. In 1988, the INTERSALT study compared urinary sodium levels with high blood pressure and found no statistically significant association between them. In fact, the population that ate the most sodium had a lower median blood pressure than the population that ate the least. A 2011 study in JAMA compared the urinary sodium levels of people with their risk of dying over the course of eight years. They were shocked to find that the more sodium their subjects ate, the less likely they were to die.
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