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Food

No Need To Cut Back On Salt, Says "Science"


By

Christopher Robbins

Published Jul 6, 2011

Modified Jul 6, 2011


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Salted cod, everyone's favorite salted fish. Via Danny R's Flickr

 


By

Christopher Robbins

Published Jul 6, 2011

Modified Jul 6, 2011


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"Doctors" say you should watch your salt intake, because the "deaths attributable to excess sodium intake represent a huge toll—the equivalent of a jumbo jet with more than 400 adults crashing every day of the year, year after year." This is especially relevant because the average New Yorker eats twice the daily recommended dosage of sodium. But what if we told you there was a way to turn that jumbo jet of death into a Highway to Heaven? A new study from Exeter University in the UK shows that "eating less salt will not prevent heart attacks, strokes, or early death." Hooray, studies are always right!

The research involved analyzing around 6,500 subjects from seven different published studies, and concluded that the "benefits of cutting back on salt may have been 'overestimated.'" Other "important lifestyle factors" may play a larger role in one's health, such as exercise, a low-fat diet and not smoking. That last one may be BS too because those studies were "inconclusive" for decades.

A spokesperson for the Consensus Action on Salt and Health told the Daily Mail that the study came to a "completely inappropriate conclusion" because it was based on studies that "were not designed to test the effects of sodium reduction on cardiovascular events and mortality." Will this study convince Bloomberg and his evil band of corporate partners to return salt back to their products? Probably not, but we don't see them banning chairs either.

Tagged

heart disease

hypertension

junk science

mayor bloomberg

SALT


Christopher Robbins

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Christopher Robbins is a New York City reporter covering transportation, affordable housing, local politics, and criminal justice. His work has also appeared in New York Magazine, The Village Voice and The New York Times. Chris is a graduate of Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Virginia, and enjoys biking to Fort Tilden in the summertime.

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