Tuesday, April 21, 2009

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."

2 comments:

health ecology said...

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health ecology said...

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