Readers may recall that just over a year ago, the American Heart Association called for all Americans to cut their salt intake from an average of 10 grams a day to 3.8 grams a day. The same day the AHA sounded that warning, the New England Journal of Medicine published a study claiming that a reduction in salt intake of 3 grams per day would save 194,000 to 392,000 quality-adjusted life-years and $10 billion to $24 billion in health care costs annually. But now comes a Belgian study, just published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, claiming that healthy people who eat the least amount of sodium don’t have any health advantage over those who eat the most. In fact, they had slightly higher death rates from heart disease. The Boston Globe reports on the study, and points out that while eating less salt has been shown to modestly lower blood pressure in people with hypertension, more than a dozen studies since the mid-1990s have reached conflicting conclusions about whether lowering salt intake helps healthy people avoid high blood pressure and its serious consequences: heart disease, stroke, and kidney failure. What to do? Take it all with a grain of salt.
Health, fitness and lifestyle tips for people over 50 who still like to play hard
Thursday, October 16, 2025
Are you shilling for the Potato Chip and Snack Foods Assn? Ask someone who has Blood Pressure problems. I take several BP meds and try to seriously limit my salt intake. Earlier this week we had Chicken Helper for supper. That morning, my BP was134/83. The morning after the meal, it was 156/84. That’s a 22 point increase directly attributable to the sodium in the package. I take my BP after rising every morning, not because I feel bad, but for tracking.
The last bastion of convenience /junk food peddlers will be salt laden foods.The retail food industry will be not just dragged kicking and screaming toward reforms ,but upside down, because it will turn the shelf life of their stock from years to days if not hours.
The article said “healthy people” didn’t have any health advantages from lowering salt….if you are struggling with HBP, you wouldn’t be considered “healthy” in that context. I have perfect blood pressure (of course I’m only 41), and I always have, even when pregnant. I am more worried about foods having MSG to make up for lowering sodium. For me and my kids, salt isn’t poisonous like MSG is.
Also, this is a good study for lawmakers who continually want to outlaw certain foods and fat/salt amounts – they need to think twice about what they are doing and why. Foods should not be mandated! If something is unhealthy for you, it is your responsibility to limit it, not the government’s!! I don’t want to be limited in my choices of what to eat just because it is a health risk for someone else. And laws should certainly not be made based on food studies that contradict themselves every few years!
everything today is available for sale to the highest briber. aparently the food industry has learned the lesson of buying medical opinions.
The report stated no difference for healthy people. You are obviously not healthy of you wouldn’t be on meds oe eating Hamburger Helper.
I, I, I,You do love yourself don’t you