Studies confirm that a low-salt diet is bad for your health

Seriously…is the CDC actually trying to kill us?

Just how long will it take for this dangerous health myth to bite the dust?

It’s one of those things that started so long ago, and has been said over and over so many times, that it’s become the gold standard recipe for staying healthy.

But it’s as big a myth as the one about Jack and that giant beanstalk.

And the CDC, for one, absolutely will not sell — or slaughter — this sacred cow. Even if it was offered some magic beans.

Make that low-salt magic beans.

Click your heels three times…

Dietary villains have come and gone over the years, but the low salt/no salt one has some amazing sticking power to it.

Even with two new studies showing — again — just how dangerous the low-sodium myth can be, don’t expect the CDC to change its tune. One researcher doubts the agency would ever “consider the possibility” it might be wrong.

The possibility that the CDC is wrong about salt has been crystallizing into fact for many years. In 2013 a big study by the Institute of Medicine added a giant question mark to its recommended limits on salt consumption.

And now a new report from Danish researchers that looked at over 270,000 people has shaken things up even more.

The lead author of the new study, Dr. Niels Graudal, said CDC guidelines of less than 2,300 mg of sodium daily if you’re under 50 and less than 1,500 mg a day if you’re over 50 “could produce harm.”

Make that really big harm.

Dr. Graudal said people who consume under 2,645 mg of sodium a day have an increased risk of death.

At the same time, another study has found even more reasons to get the salt shaker back on the table.

Canadian researcher Dr. Salim Yusuf, who led this study, puts an optimal intake between 3,000 and 6,000 mg a day. That, he said, make sense since “sodium is an essential nutrient required by the body.”

Those who consumed salt in that range had “the lowest risk of death” and deadly heart problems, he said.

Dr. Yusuf told the World Congress of Cardiology session in Australia that going below 3,000 mg a day puts your heart at serious risk.

But both researchers said exceeding a certain amount wasn’t good either. The first study said you should stop at just short of 5,000 mg a day, the second at 6,000.

Of course, “if you ask the CDC,” Dr. Graudal said, “they would tell you that there is massive evidence” that reducing sodium lowers blood pressure by quite a bit. But the CDC, he said, has never come up with data to support that.

So what will it take to get the CDC to change its policy on sodium?

Most likely, time.

A change in the agency’s position, Dr. Graudal believes, “would demand a change of the personnel.”

Especially those who would never consider the possibility they might be wrong.

Sources:
“CDC sodium intake guidelines ‘excessively and unrealistically low'” April 2, 2014, Medical News Today, medicalnewstoday.com

“Salt and battery: debate on sodium targets gets feisty” Michael O’Riordan, May 7, 2014, Medscape, Medscape.com