Too much salt, Americans?

In today's health column in WSJ, Melinda Beck writes about America's unfortunate love affair with sodium. She says we have increased our salt intake by 50% since the 1970s. I'll go a bit further and say since 1970, the real beginning of the current women's movement. I think on Thursday I'll write about 13 social, political, spiritual, economic and health problems we can trace to the modern women's movement. But I digress.

Beck says we (average Americans) get 15 times the sodium the body needs to function. Guilty as charged. I salt my breakfast--an apple, some sliced carrots and walnuts. I salt restaurant french fries. I salt canned soup. I'm bad. But I have very low blood pressure. Still that's no excuse, and those things can change overnight. So this morning I'm eating my apple, carrots and walnuts without salt. I noticed Beck mentioned osteoporosis, which of course should always be a concern to fair skin Caucasian women living with little sunshine (for vitamin D) and who don't like exercise. When I Googled "osteoporosis + sodium" I got a mixed bag, so that will take a bit of research. It seems very primitive societies have almost no salt in their diets, have very low blood pressure, but not a terrific advantage on life expectancy.

Even so, until further research, I'll eat my breakfast without salt.

I don't qualify, but maybe you do: "HYPERTENSION STUDY. The Department of Family Medicine at The Ohio State University is currently enrolling for a research study for people with stage 2 hypertension. This study is looking at how effective a combination pill of valsartan and aliskiren works versus valsartan alone. Participation will last up to 12 weeks and participants may receive up to $700. If you are interested in learning more about this study, please contact Paula Smailes at (614) 293-3644 or paula.smailes@osumc.edu."