A Salt with Intent

Human beings are about 0.4 percent salt. It’s in our bloodstream, and if we drink too much water without sufficient salt, the resulting in a potentially fatal condition called water intoxication or hyponatremia. It’s why athletes need salt in hot summer competitions in addition to massive hydration. Salt has been used not just as condiment but as a food preservative over the ages. But the other side of the equation is too much salt, which like too much sugar, appears to be an American addiction. Picture a batch of yummy French fries without a lick of salt. Yeah, precisely. We slather salt on just about every appetizer and main course item we can find.

Too much salt tends to increase blood pressure, often sustainably and significantly with constant excess salt. This leads to cardiovascular disease, ranging from strokes and various diseases of the heart muscle (you know what I mean), left ventricular hypertrophy (cardiac enlargement), kidney disease, edema (excessive fluid retention), etc. It can even foment stomach cancer in diets (common in Japan, for example) with excessive salt. The list of negatives is substantial.

This deadly impact of too much dietary salt kills a whole lot of people every year. According to researchers recently writing for the American Heart Association, as reported in the February 11^th Los Angeles Times, “Americans currently consume about 3,600 milligrams of sodium daily--roughly 40% above the ‘slightly less ambitious’ interim goal [2,200 milligrams] posited by the researchers--and much of that is hidden in processed foods such as soups, cereals, bread and soups. While the link between sodium intake and high blood pressure is much debated, research strongly suggests that high-sodium diets can push blood pressure above safe limits and exacerbate high blood pressure, and that lowering sodium consumption tends to lower blood pressure. That's important, because some 45% of cardiovascular disease in the United States is attributed to high blood pressure.

“The researchers called efforts to reduce average American sodium intake by 40% ‘a daunting task that will likely require multiple layers of interventions.’ Food industry experts and public health officials have been meeting in recent years to secure steady, small reductions in the sodium content of processed foods--reductions they believe that consumers might not even notice… Steadily reducing sodium in the foods we buy and eat could save a half-million Americans from dying premature deaths over a decade, says a new study. And a more abrupt reduction to 2,200 milligrams per day--a 40% drop from current levels--could boost the tally of lives saved over 10 years to 850,000, researchers have projected.” 1,500 would even be better. It the sodium in the chemical combination of sodium chloride (the chemical name for salt) that appears to be the culprit.

While an abrupt reduction in salt would do the trick nicely, most folks who go that route find their food lacks taste. A slow reduction is more palatable, and switching to low sodium products (e.g., low sodium soy sauce!) makes common sense. After a while, it the body’s taste preferences adjust and food tastes just fine. You have to battle bartenders who know that salty snacks increase the yearning for more beverages, packaged snack and prepared food purveyors who know that the essence of demand is the salt content… but it is a battle worth winning.

I’m Peter Dekom reporting on the odium of sodium!