I’m a huge salt lover. In my mind, there are very few things that don’t get just a tiny bit better with a pinch. Or, er, three. But these are rough times for tastebuds like mine: Earlier this year the Center for Disease Control announced findings concluding that 70 percent of American adults are in high-risk groups that would benefit from reducing their salt consumption by over half. Not long after, the American Medical Association declared that if Americans halved their salt intake, as many as 150,000 premature deaths could be prevented each year. And new research presented at the American Heart Association’s annual conference showed that even tiny salt reductions–as little as eating just one gram less per day–could save 200,000 lives over a single decade. Some pretty heavy claims. After the jump, I’ve pulled together some of the latest research on the subject to see what these numbers might mean in the bigger picture.
Since 1970, the amount of salt we eat has risen by 50%, mostly due to our increased consumption of processed foods. In fact, Thomas Frieden, commissioner of New York City’s Department of Health an Mental Hygiene has said that only 11% of the salt people eat comes from shakers—or their own kitchens. The rest, he says, makes its way into our diet through packaged foods.
Salt’s dangerous qualities are thought to stem from sodium’s important function within the body—maintaining osmotic pressure within the blood vessels. If suddenly there’s a large amount of sodium traveling through the vessels, water from outside will be absorbed to maintain that chemical balance. This increases the amount of fluid within the vessels, putting pressure on their walls. High blood pressure results.
Young, healthy individuals are at a low risk for this because their kidneys filter out a whole lot of excess salt at the getgo. But as people age—and also in certain populations with genetic predispositions—that function is believed to work less well. More salt slips through the cracks.
Importantly, not everyone is on board with making drastic cuts to salt consumption. The New York Times’s John Tierney has pointed out that most salt studies to date have been correlative, meaning that countless other factors may be at work. People who eat a lot of salt, he says, tend to have poor health and eating habits overall; they also smoke more, eat more junk food, exercise less, and so on. Interestingly, per Tierney’s reporting, the only actual randomized clinical trial done on salt’s effects—conducted on people already obese and suffering from heart disease—found that it was decreased salt intake that matched up with increased heart disease.
Indeed, according to Michael Alderman, a professor of medicine and epidemiology at Albert Einstein College of medicine, of nine recent observational studies on salt consumption, only one showed an association between decreased incidence of heart disease in lowered salt intake. Not only that, four actually connected reduced sodium with higher incidence of death from heart disease. (The remaining four more showed no change whatsoever stemming from lowering salt intake.)
On that note, there’s even some compelling research pointing to other health benefits. For instance, a University of Iowa study, out this March, that linked lower salt intake with depression. When lab rats were deprived of salt, they shied away from activities they usually found enjoyable. “Things that normally would be pleasurable for rats didn’t elicit the same degree of relish, which leads us to believe that a salt deficit and the craving associated with it can induce one of the key symptoms associate with depression,” lead author Kim Johnson told reporters.
Still, whether or not salt is hugely detrimental–the fact that it can or may be should be enough to get us to curb our consumption. Currently, Americans eat 9-12 grams of salt per day; most health organizations recommend 5-6 grams. While the words “salt” and “sodium” are often used interchangeably, salt is actually a substance that contains sodium (about .4 grams per gram of salt). Therefore, if you’re measuring in terms of sodium, look to keep your intake at about 2,000-2,400 mg (most of us now get 3,600-4,800 mg of sodium).
Personally, I’m trying to get better about reading labels. It turns out that I’m worse at predicting how salty something is than I imagined–a good reason to amp up my efforts. For example, it turns out that a quarter-cup of Planters mixed salted nuts contain less than half the sodium of seven Kraft Monterey Jack reduced fat cheese cubes. One half cup of low-fat cottage cheese had twice the sodium of a 1 oz serving of potato chips. And Premium Caesar Salad with grilled chicken from McDonalds (without dressing) has more than twice the sodium of a large order of McDonalds fries.
My second line of attack is a little more fun. I’ve started using sea salt instead of table salt. It’s higher in potency and lower in sodium than regular table salt, so a little goes a long way. In my experience, too, it actually tastes better than the original. That’s something I’ll shake to.
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Camille
