What Do We Want? Salt! When Do We Want It? Now!
Scientific American reports that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other nanny staters don't have science on their side when they use government force to attempt to limit salt consumption:
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 publishing in the Journal of the American Medical Association 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.
Research on salt may change over time but this analysis does give us even more reason to be wary of a government that wants to control every aspect of our lives.
Also, I mentioned on a recent Ricochet podcast my desire to open a gourmet salt store in Venice Beach. I think my moment is now.
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May '10
Re: What Do We Want? Salt! When Do We Want It? Now!
My cousin's husband wrote a book on the rise of the good food industry over the course of the last 30 years called The United States of Arugula. In the course of writing it, he said, he was treated to a salt tasting at a California restaurant.
They brought out a wooden board with several little heaps of differently colored and textured salts.
When my husband and I visited California a couple of years ago, we brought home some apricot flavored olive oil and a jar of black salt in oatmeal size flakes.
Amazing.
May '10
Re: What Do We Want? Salt! When Do We Want It? Now!
But, back to the main point of your thread:
My rule of thumb is whatever comes straight from God is good. Don't believe the "studies". This meant I never fell for the "no more than two eggs a week" thing, or the salt thing. I also always suspected the advantages of fat-free milk, yogurt and cheese would prove elusive.
Edited on Jul 25, 2011 at 6:14amDec '10
Re: What Do We Want? Salt! When Do We Want It? Now!
I'm with Katie on this one. Food is meant to be enjoyed. Just as God created sex to be for more than just procreation, so also eating is for more than mere survival. As with anything else, excessive consumption could cause problems, but who really has a spoon full of salt with every bite of bacon?
Mar '11
Re: What Do We Want? Salt! When Do We Want It? Now!
Venice Beach? Salt store? Lots of luck!
Nov '10
Re: What Do We Want? Salt! When Do We Want It? Now!
My Dad's family has a genetic appetite for salt unlike anything I have ever seen. I like more salt than the average person, and tend to salt my food before tasting it. My younger sister and my dad are truly amazing in their salt intake. Sea salt, seasoned salt, garlic salt, lemon pepper, you name it. I do enjoy experimenting with some of the gourmet salts around, but we will all make do with what's on hand. I have always joked that you can almost watch the level of salt in the shakers go down at a family reunion.
This article is relieved-sigh-inducing for all of us!
Apr '11
Re: What Do We Want? Salt! When Do We Want It? Now!
I stopped paying close attention to nutrition advice when 'they' started saying milk was bad. But I briefly perked up when German scientists proved beer was 'good'.
Apr '11
Re: What Do We Want? Salt! When Do We Want It? Now!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsP30jEqFQA&feature=related
Dec '10
Re: What Do We Want? Salt! When Do We Want It? Now!
I have long held that the anti-salt zealots have not made their case. If you have ever eaten Korean food (if you haven’t, by all means do, it’s delicious) you should be familiar with kimchee. When a Korean has a meal it almost always contains two things: rice and kimchee. It is likely that it will contain other things, but kimchee and rice are basic. They eat this stuff three times a day, or more. Kimchee is loaded with salt. Unless you can show that Koreans have higher than normal rates of hypertension, I do not think you can credibly link salt consumption to developing hypertension.
Oct '10
Re: What Do We Want? Salt! When Do We Want It? Now!
Gourmet salt in Venice Beach? I'm on my way!
Re: What Do We Want? Salt! When Do We Want It? Now!
Are you suggesting it be a combination salt and medical marijuana store? I'll have to talk to my husband.
Mar '11
Re: What Do We Want? Salt! When Do We Want It? Now!
Stay with the salt store. It'll be a pillar of the business community there. Go with your dream and never look back.
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.
Are you suggesting it be a combination salt and medical marijuana store? I'll have to talk to my husband. · Jul 25 at 8:37am
May '10
Re: What Do We Want? Salt! When Do We Want It? Now!
I've said it before and will say it again: Epidemiology is junk science. Especially when it looks at associations with diet.
When I was in grad school, studying Epidemiology (PhD level), we had a guest speaker who went on about salt and hypertension. He showed that hugely minimizing salt in a control group's diet led to a...wait, hold on to your seats...2-4 mm/Hg decrease in systolic blood pressure. Since this was done in a huge sample, they found it to be statistically significant and predicted thousands of lives saved. I said, Huh? and looked around the room at a bunch of nodding sheep. They insisted that I just didn't understand the strength of extrapolating population wide.
Well, what I did and do understand is that blood pressure can change by a lot more than 2-4 mm/Hg over the course of a day and with differences in posture. I also understand--thanks to a brilliant biostats professor--that any data can be made statistically significant if the sample size is large enough. That prof always said, "never forget your scientific question; the statistics are only advisory."
Eat what makes you happy. Moderately.
Jul '11
Re: What Do We Want? Salt! When Do We Want It? Now!
Medical theories come and go. I had a professor at UCSD named Dr Saltman (your daily dose of unintended irony) who wrote a common sense nutritional book and on some talk show the "guru" bashed him for not restricting salt. He responded by saying the normal kidney could handle sodium without any problems at all.....shocking the wise guru who snickered.
I am no longer as excited about the latest trends as I used to be.
May '10
Re: What Do We Want? Salt! When Do We Want It? Now!
BTW, there are people who have salt-sensitive hypertension and they most certainly benefit from being on reduced-salt diets.
Extrapolating from them to the population as a whole is like recognizing that some people have severe peanut allergies and restricting use of peanuts for all of us. Of course that's what they're doing on airplanes and in school lunches... (yes, I realize it's to protect "them" and not us, but it is some of the same nanny-reflex and it's annoying).
People with particular sensitivities need to avoid the problem foods/drugs/exposures and let the rest of us alone! Do you want to get me started on my employer (an academic medical center, fergoshsake!) outlawing sugar based soft drinks? Of course, artificially sweetened ones are available... It's to "help us make healthy choices." Apart from the poor grammar, they're not "helping" me to do anything when they take the choice away!
Okay, end of rant...back to work. With the naturally sweetened iced tea I brought from home....
Dec '10
Re: What Do We Want? Salt! When Do We Want It? Now!
Basil Fawlty: It'll be a pillar of the business community there.
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.
25 at 8:37am
Jul 25 at 9:04am
Like Lot's wife?
Jun '11
Re: What Do We Want? Salt! When Do We Want It? Now!
I love it! I am so weary of the down-their-noses looks I receive from devotees of Dr. Oz and his ilk every time I reach for the salt shaker and the piety in their voices when they brag about not cooking with it. Am I bitter, you ask? No, just well-seasoned!
Feb '11
Re: What Do We Want? Salt! When Do We Want It? Now!
Not to brag, but I made a fabulous gift I called "Mama Toad's Scarborough Fair Seasoned Salt" for my mom and mother-in-law this summer, with, of course, dried parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme and kosher salt. Yum.