A new paper from a very large ongoing observational study offers additional and more powerful evidence that dramatic reductions in salt consumption may not be beneficial and might even prove harmful. The finding supports growing criticism that current guideline recommendations to dramatically lower salt intake in the general population may be misguided. The study also…
Lancet Paper Adds To Evidence That Reducing Salt To Very Low Levels May Be Dangerous
August 9, 2018 by 4 Comments
Salt War Opponents Unite In Call For Randomized Trial In Prisons
May 21, 2018 by 1 Comment
The opposing camps in the salt wars don’t agree on much, but they have now found common ground in their belief that the only way to settle the salt question is with a large randomized controlled trial. Further, they now agree that it would be nearly impossible to perform such a trial in the real…
Top Cardiologist Blasts Nutrition Guidelines
February 27, 2017 by 15 Comments
–Salim Yusuf says new evidence fails to support many major diet recommendations. One of the world’s top cardiologists says that many of the major nutrition guidelines have no good basis in science. “I’m not a nutrition scientist and that may be an advantage because every week in the newspaper we read something is good for…
International Experts Call Salt Guidelines Far Too Restrictive
February 14, 2017 by 5 Comments
A broad group of international experts are recommending a far more modest and less draconian approach to sodium restriction than current U.S. and international guidelines. In a new paper, published online in the European Heart Journal, they also focused on the broad gaps of knowledge in the field and drew attention to the paucity of…
FDA Proposes Voluntary Sodium Cuts by Food Industry
June 1, 2016 by Leave a Comment
–AMA, AHA, ACC, etc voice support, but not everyone agrees. After decades of discussion and inaction, the FDA today took a first concrete step toward reducing sodium levels in the general population: It issued draft guidance for voluntary sodium reduction targets for the food industry. The FDA said that the new recommendations come from “leading…
The American Heart Association’s Strong Stance Against Science
May 25, 2016 by 8 Comments
Once again the American Heart Association has taken a strong stance against science. Of course, that’s not how the AHA phrases it. In its own words the AHA says it “strongly refutes the findings” of a “flawed study” which “you shouldn’t use… to inform yourself about how you’re going to eat.” But in fact the…
Study Suggests Salt Restriction Only Beneficial In People With Hypertension
May 22, 2016 by 3 Comments
–More questions raised about broad efforts to restrict salt; AHA condemns study A large new analysis offers more evidence that broad salt restriction doesn’t benefit most people and may even harm some people. The study did find that salt restriction may be beneficial to the minority of people with high blood pressure who also consume…
Paper Raises More Questions About Salt Restriction In Heart Failure
December 28, 2015 by 6 Comments
Sodium restriction is a cornerstone of heart failure management, but many people would be surprised to learn that there is no good supporting evidence for the practice. In the 2009 heart failure guidelines sodium restriction in heart failure received a Class I recommendation (recommended), but this was based only on expert consensus (a C level of evidence of…
Salt, Science, And The American Heart Association’s Double Standard
January 23, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Once again the American Heart Association is sticking by its recommendation that pretty much everyone should consume no more than 1,500 milligrams of sodium each day. This is dramatically lower than the 3,500 mg/d the average American now consumes. In a blog post reprinted on MedPage Today the president of the American Heart Association, Elliott Antman, assails a study published earlier this week which found no…
How Much Salt Should Old People Consume?
January 19, 2015 by Leave a Comment
A new study offers fresh evidence that current salt recommendations should be taken with, well, a grain of salt. Current guidelines now recommend that everyone should have sodium intake levels below 2300 mg per day. For many people at higher risk, including everyone over 50 years of age, sodium intake should be below 1500 mg/d….
Get Rid of Sugar, Not Salt, Say Authors
December 10, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Too much negative attention has been focused on salt and not enough on sugar, write two authors in Open Heart. Reviewing the extensive literature on salt and sugar, they write that the adverse effects of salt are less than the adverse effects of sugar. The evidence supporting efforts to reduce salt in the diet is not convincing…
Why Guidelines Should Be Waged Like War
August 22, 2014 by 1 Comment
(Updated) Here’s a modest proposal: we need fewer and shorter guidelines. In fact, I’d like to propose that guidelines, like war, should be waged only when there is absolute consensus and overwhelming evidence. Anyone interested in the subject is aware that guidelines are in a complete mess. Just in the past two weeks I’ve written about…
An Expert’s Perspective: Why Salt Is Not Like Tobacco And Why Guidelines Are Tricky
August 14, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Updated August 15– At the center of this week’s renewed debate on salt was Salim Yusuf, the long influential and occasionally controversial cardiology researcher and clinical trialist based at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. I spoke with Yusuf before the publication of the New England Journal of Medicine papers, which include his own two papers from the PURE study….
New Studies Fuel The Debate Over Sodium
August 13, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Three papers and an editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine are sure to throw fresh fuel on the ongoing fiery debate over sodium recommendations. Current guidelines recommend that people should limit their intake of sodium to 1.5 to 2.4 grams per day, but these recommendations are based on projections and have never been tested in clinical…
Salt Report From IOM Sparks Much Heat, Only A Little Light
May 16, 2013 by Leave a Comment
An Institute of Medicine report on salt earlier this week sparked a lot of controversy. The report concludes that there’s no evidence to support current efforts to lower salt consumption to less than 2,300 mg/day. Unfortunately, the press coverage offered little insight into the science behind the issue. On the Knight Science Journalism Tracker blog,…
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