Challenging the salt stigma

Try as I might, I've never been able to make much of a dent on the mainstream's maligning of salt.

Even though I've shouted at the top of my lungs that salt does NOT cause high blood pressure except in a very small percentage of people who are abnormally salt-sensitive, the mainstream continues to portray sodium as a killer to be shunned at all costs. And with today's ridiculously low guidelines for "high" blood pressure - there's no reprieve in sight for salt.

But some recent European research has concluded that an extra pinch or two of salt per day can help the elderly to stay healthy - and that fully 10% of older folks suffer from a sodium DEFICIENCY! This lack of sufficient daily salt can cause nervousness, hallucinations, muscle cramps, and even urinary incontinence.

This, amidst a UK-wide drive to reduce salt in Briton's diets!

In fact, according to a recent Nutraingredients online article, the UK's Health Minister, Melanie Johnson, rejected a June proposal from Britain's major food producers to reduce levels of salt in food - for not being stringent enough! Instead, she issued more than 20 of Britain's food giants a September ultimatum to reduce the "unacceptably high levels of salt" in their foods.

I guess it takes more than direct scientific evidence to shake the "salt stigma" in the hallowed halls of parliament, huh? Perhaps she was suffering from a low-sodium-induced hallucination…

The campaign against salt - and the continuing misinformation of the public about sodium and high blood pressure - is no less militant on these shores. I'd hoped that after the last round of downward revisions in the already absurdly low blood pressure standards, people would have started to question the conventional wisdom on the topic.

Instead, we seem content with today's most popular salt substitute: Hypertension drugs.

Here's one salty dog who never substitutes for the truth,

William Campbell Douglass II, MD