Say, About The Reasons The Salt Nazi’s Have Been Going Nuts….

All those cities and elected politicians who want to ban, or have banned, the use of salt in restaurants? All the weenies how whine about the use of salt, and should really mind their own damned business, and let me get on with my own high blood pressure leading to a massive myocardial infarction? Yeah, about that

People who ate lots of salt were not more likely to get high blood pressure, and were less likely to die of heart disease than those with a low salt intake, in a new European study.

The findings “certainly do not support the current recommendation to lower salt intake in the general population,” study author Dr. Jan Staessen, of the University of Leuven in Belgium, told Reuters Health.

The “OMG! Salt bad!” meme came from a short term study. So, for this study

The researchers used data from two different studies, incorporating a total of about 3,700 Europeans who had their salt consumption measured through urine samples at the start of the studies. Staessen and his colleagues broke the participants up into three groups: those with highest and lowest salt intakes, and those with average intake.

None of the participants had heart disease at the outset, and two thirds had normal blood pressure. They were followed for an average of 8 years, during which researchers determined how many of them were diagnosed with heart disease, and in a smaller group, how many got high blood pressure.

Eight years, huh? And

The chance of getting heart and blood vessel diseases did not differ in the three groups. However, participants with the lowest salt intake had the highest rate of death from heart disease during the follow up (4 percent), and people who ate the most salt had the lowest (less than 1 percent).

Across all three salt-intake groups, about one in four study participants who started out with normal blood pressure were diagnosed with high blood pressure during follow up.

So, those who used more salt had better outcomes than those who used less? Isn’t it wonderful when science brings the reality to overwrought political issues based more on feelings than rational thought? Reminds me of another issue I blog about frequently. But, don’t expect the politicians to change their minds: they have a mission, and they like telling people how to live their lives.

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