Sodium in diet The global study, published on Friday in the journal Lancet, was conducted by a research team from the Population Health Research Institute at McMaster University, concluded that low-sodium diets lead to a greater chance of heart disease and death than a diet of “average” sodium intake. While that still stands to be true, lead author Andrew Mente said there’s also another message that isn’t usually heard: make sure you get enough sodium.
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“Having neither too high nor too low levels of sodium [salt] is optimal for health”, said Mente, an associate professor of clinical epidemiology and biostatistics at McMaster University, in Ontario, Canada.
On the contrary, the link between excessive sodium and high blood pressure – as well as higher risks of heart disease, stroke, heart failure and kidney disease – is indisputable.
What does a moderate intake of sodium look like? Eating food with less salt is now said to cause heat concerns like stroke and other related ailments.
“Low sodium intake reduces blood pressure modestly, compared to average intake, but low sodium intake also has other effects, including adverse elevations of certain hormones which may outweigh any benefits”.
In order to reach the findings, the researchers studied more than 130,000 participants in 49 different countries.
“If you attempt to reduce your blood pressure by lowering your sodium, you’re lowering your blood pressure but you’re activating your renin-angiontensin system”, Mente said. Do you struggle with high blood pressure? “It turns out these assumptions are wrong”. Earlier studies have suggested that low-sodium diet is good for heart health.
Cappuccio said that the research paper was in fact a “re-publication” of older data from another paper laden with ‘flaws and criticism.’ Sadly, the criticism in that previous paper was largely ignored in the latest study, Cappucio believes.
Current intake of sodium in Canada is typically between 3.5 and 4 grams per day and some guidelines have recommended that the entire population lower sodium intake to below 2.3 grams per day, a level that fewer than five percent of Canadians and people around the world consume. Further research on the matter is needed.
This new study shows that the risks associated with low-sodium intake – less than 3 grams per day – are consistent regardless of a patient’s hypertension status. Unfortunately, most Americans consume more than twice the American Heart Association’s recommended limit of 1,500 milligrams per day.
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Antman went on to point out that the methods of the study-namely, estimating daily salt intake based off of a single urine test at the start of the study-is likely a poor indicator of how much salt a person truly consumes. It found that low-sodium intake was linked with increased number of heart attacks, strokes and death even for the ones suffering from hypertension.
