Salt, or sodium chloride, is a mineral, one of the few that people eat
For decades, policy makers have tried and failed to get Americans to eat less salt. (…)
This week a meta-analysis of seven studies involving a total of 6,250 subjects in the American Journal of Hypertension found no strong evidence that cutting salt intake reduces the risk for heart attacks, strokes or death in people with normal or high blood pressure.
In May, European researchers reported that the less sodium that study subjects excreted in their urine—an excellent measure of prior consumption—the greater their risk was of dying from heart disease.
These findings call into question the common wisdom that excess salt is bad for you, but the evidence linking salt to heart disease has always been tenuous.
drawing { Jean-Michel Basquiat, Salt, 1981 }
