New Study Says that Salt May Not Be so Bad for You After All

In the old Woody Allen movie "Sleeper" in the future everything that was bad is turns out to be good for you. The movie is fiction of course, but in the past smoking and drinking were considered very healthful. Some drugs that are illegal now and thought harmful were thought to be medicine back then. Take cocaine in Coca Cola, for example.

There are early 1900's newspaper ads that plugged "Cigars of Joy." They were said to be a cure for asthma. My friend John has a poster from his family's now defunct liquor company, Bardenheier wines. Seems they also made a product called "Sunshine" bourbon. The poster shows three gentleman sitting around a card table. They are all smoking cigars and drinking full glasses of the bourbon. The caption says: "We Owe Our Good Health to Sunshine Bourbon."

For years doctors have been telling people that too much salt is bad for them. They say that most Americans eat many times more salt than they really need. Excess salt is said to increase blood pressure and make you more susceptible to heart attack and stroke. Now there may be some evidence that suggests that isn't the case. According to CNN:

"...A new study suggests low salt intake actually increases the risk of dying from those causes? (High blood pressure and heart attack). The study also found that above-average sodium intake did not appear to up the risk of developing high blood pressure (hypertension) or dying of a heart attack or stroke."

The finding were reported in the May edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association. And they certainly contradict the conventional wisdom. In recent years there has been a push by health professionals to urge restaurants and food manufacturers to limit the use of salt in their food.

But don't break out those bags of salty pretzels just yet. The study may have a few shortcomings. For one, the salt levels of the participants were only taken once at the beginning of the eight year study.

And the other sticking point is that most of the participants were young healthy white males who weighed less than the average American. The groups that have the most problems with high blood pressure are Blacks, Hispanics, and overweight people. Salt reacts differently with them and may affect their blood pressure differently.

So more research is needed and maybe some groups should be included in the next study. The recommendation that people in the above race groups, overweight people, and people who have high blood pressure should continue to restrict their sodium intake should stand. For the rest of you an extra sprinkle of salt probably won't hurt.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/05/03/salt.heart.attack/index.html