Too Much of A Good Thing? – Excess Salt Thought to Compromise Health

By: Jean Johnson for Body1

“The salt assault is probably good for funeral directors and coffin makers, but it is a disaster for shoppers and restaurant patrons,” said Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) executive director, Michael F. Jacobson.

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Tips on reducing salt intake Choose fresh vegetables and fruits, and unsalted nuts and seeds. Look for fresh fish, whole grains, and low fat or nonfat dairy items. Know that cheeses, like many meats, contain high amounts of salt. Limit salty broths, bouillons, soups and snack foods. Use spices and herbs to enhance the taste of food. Allow several weeks for the palate to regain its ability to appreciate naturally-occurring flavors in foods. Switching from regular salt to sea salt won’t help according to the U.K.’s Consensus Action on Salt and Health.

Echoing Jacobson’s concern, chemist in the Office of Food Labeling in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Ellen Anderson, Ph.D., points out “Seventy-five percent of the sodium consumed is in processed foods. What the food industry includes during processing, we can’t take out.”

The Debate

Considerable controversy exists over the developed world’s salt intake and salt’s effect on health. Particularly in the 1990s, a flurry of conflicting studies and even a meta-study that compiled the results of other studies for analysis were published in major medical journals in both the United States and the United Kingdom.

While the British made salt reduction a national priority within the nation’s Food Standards Agency, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not moved in a similar fashion, opting instead for better labeling that allows consumers to make their own choices about salt content in processed foods.

Consequently, the CSPI wants Congress to “create a new Division of Sodium Reduction within the FDA that could encourage – through bully pulpit and regulation – food companies to use less salt,” said Jacobson. He also pointed out that because of the U.K.’s vigorous approach, “some food products such as Kraft’s Lunchables have less sodium there than they do in the U.S.”

Despite unresolved questions surrounding the salt debate in the United States, the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C., recommends consuming at least 500 milligrams of salt daily but no more than 2,400 milligrams. Reducing the intake of sodium chloride to 1,800 milligrams, the council observes, would probably be even better as far as our health is concerned.

Potential Health Concerns about High Salt Consumption

The American Heart Association, of course, recommends low intakes of salt, placing the upper limit at 2,300 milligrams. High blood pressure, which increases risk for stroke and heart attack, has long been understood as a partial result of high salt intake. According to the British nonprofit Consensus Action on Salt and Health, “a reduction of salt intake will have an immediate effect on lowering blood pressure and over the long term is likely to prevent the rise in blood pressure” that often accompanies the aging process.

Bone demineralization, or osteoporosis, is also exacerbated by excessive salt consumption in postmenopausal women, concluded a 2002 study lead by Deborah Sellmeyer, M.D., assistant adjunct professor of endocrinology and metabolism at the University of California at San Francisco. High salt intake draws calcium from the bones where it is then excreted through urine. Calcium-depleted, osteoporotic bones thin out and become more fragile thus increasing a woman’s susceptibility for fractures. Women who cannot decrease their salt consumption are encouraged to compensate by eating things like spinach, melons, potatoes and bananas which are high in potassium.

Too much salt in the diet has been implicated in a number of other health problems as well. Fluid retention is one. People whose ankles tend to swell or whose rings get tight on their fingers at the end of the day may find that controlling their salt consumption can reduce or eliminate these uncomfortable and unsightly dynamics.

Diets that are over the top in salt are also implicated in stomach cancer, asthma and kidney disease. The World Cancer Research Fund recommends limiting salt to decrease the risk of stomach cancer. Other groups and studies have also demonstrated that salt can aggravate asthma. Similarly, although the cause is not well understood, some research indicates that high salt consumption in patients who have kidney problems may worsen the progression of the disease.

Ways to Minimize the Salt Assault

Since the main culprit on the salt scene is the food processing industry, those interested in controlling their intake need to read the labels at the very least, and choose fresh foods when possible. The CSPI did some advance work in this area, analyzing more than 500 packaged foods. They concluded that no one brand is lower in salt across the board, and thus that buyers need to be both observant and discriminating.

For example, CSPI found that in the world of canned tomatoes, Hunt’s Original had almost twice the sodium of Contadina Roma Style. Then again, when it came to tomato paste, Contadina Roma Style had almost three times that of Hunt’s. Expectedly, the CSPI found that frozen and processed meats were heavily dosed with salt-laden solutions and brines. But what was more surprising in a crackers comparison was that the natural brand Hains Rich All Natural crackers are almost 50 percent saltier than the regular old standbys, Ritz crackers.

It goes without saying that those interested in reducing their salt intake need to shift over to the world of fresh vegetables and fruits and stir up a pot of homemade polenta now and then. But even the best attempts to tone down use of the dazzling white crystals that do so much to enhance the flavor of food can be tough.

The reason is because a single teaspoon of salt contains 2,000 milligrams of sodium – nearly our daily limit if you want to accept the National Research Council’s figure of 2,400, or nearly over our daily limit if you steer more towards the American Heart Association’s guidance.

Indeed, even a polite cup of plain non-fat yogurt has 180 milligrams and the list of salt-packed food goes on. Essentially, if we really want to get our salt levels under control we need to avoid processed foods as much as possible and skip picking up the salt shaker when we’re at the table.

Then again, getting off the salt-go-round might open up a whole new world if the Consensus Action on Salt and Health folks from the U.K. are correct.

“The saltiness of food depends not only on the salt content of the food but also the salt taste receptors in the mouth,” stated CASH literature. “Initially when you reduce your salt intake the foods might be bland, but after two or three weeks your taste receptors become more sensitive and you taste the real, delicious flavor of natural foods.”

“That seems to match our experience,” said Gary Jackson of Berkeley, Calif. “We sort of chafed at first, but after we started getting in the habit of using herbs and garlic and vinegars and lemon, we’d never go back to putting salt on everything.

“My wife has a few herbs growing outside the back door, and even though that seemed like a pain too at first,” Jackson explained, “now it’s just a matter of course that we take time to chop up some parsley or rosemary or stem all those little thyme leaves off their woody branches. And it’s not only the flavor of the herbs, but the smell of them in the kitchen when we’re making dinner is really quite nice – way more subtle than salt.”

Jackson also added that his family loves roasted pumpkin seeds, something they used to salt, but have since adapted. “We probably found it in a magazine somewhere, but it’s great. We just sprinkle on a tiny bit of cayenne and then the best paprika we can find. Some of it is even smoked, so we use that when we have it. It’s interesting discovering this world of different paprikas and such. I mean, I’d never heard of smoky paprika. It’s something we would have never gotten around to if we hadn’t wanted to get away from all the salt.”

Last updated: 08-May-06