Salt 2- Confusion

There was a great piece published in TIME magazine this week regarding salt.  It discussed a controversial study that suggested that sodium reduction may not be as important as once thought.  The piece in TIME also referenced a boldly written article in Scientific American titled, "It's Time to End the War on Salt: the zealous drive by politicians to limit our salt intake has little basis in science"

There's quite a bit of confusion and as discussed in the articles referenced above, there are many scientific papers that ping-pong back and forth debating the influence of salt on overall health.  Nearly all of these studies look at salt's influence on hypertension; a very well-described risk factor for cardiovascular disease.

If you read enough of these types of stories, you realize that ultimately, the conclusion is, "We don't know enough.  We have some ideas but need further research to see what bears out."  The interpreted message for some is, "Therefore, we will eat as much salt as we want since science can't prove that salt is bad."

I hate to 'cut and paste' but this last paragraph from the TIME piece is great:

In the end then, there may be no simple answers. Researchers and public health officials who support population-wide efforts to curb sodium intake have a vast body of evidence to support their point of view. For decades now, they can say, we have seen studies that suggest — but, yes, they only suggest — that salt is deadly. And those who don't support efforts to curb salt consumption can claim, often correctly, that the evidence against salt is merely suggestive.

In other words, you can interpret this particular body of science to support your views and frankly, no one can prove you wrong at this point.  While the policy wonks can have a field day debating both sides of this, where does that leave the average consumer?

So as a person who advocates for the average consumer (I am not a policy maker and have no relationship to any food companies), I'll tell you that frankly, you should eat less salt.  There is enough evidence from a physiological perspective that tells us that too much salt is bad.  Bad enough to kill you?  Maybe not- in and of itself. But certainly bad enough to contribute to several vicious cycles of physiological demise that can be very difficult to break.  

We'll explore.  But the science combined with a healthy dose of common sense will show us that we take in too much salt and that is bad.