LifeCare Chiropractic

The Best Chiropractic Care in Mesa, Arizona

salt

LOW SALT DIETS CONTRIBUTE TO DIABETES?

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With research, we need to take everything with a grain of salt (so to speak…) and look at the big picture.  I have personally never been an advocate of steering patients towards a low salt diet.  As I’ve mentioned in prior posts, “low salt” is the low hanging fruit of lifestyle changes.  Very easy to change and no industry gets harmed too bad financially..it’s pretty easy to come out with a “low sodium” version of whatever crappy product was originally produced.

I personally think salt has been used as a surrogate for poor dietary choices.  Many unhealthy, processed foods are very high in sodium.  And, much like coffee use in the past, it was given a bad rap not because of its negative health effects, but rather by the behaviors associated with it.

Overall, a very small percentage of the population is salt sensitive.  Maybe 5%.  In these patients, lowering salt intake may bring down blood pressure a little.  Certainly not nearly as much as avoiding refined carbs and exercising.  But there is at least no harm in a low salt diet, right?

Not according to this study, which found an increase in insulin resistance (a very, very bad thing) in those consuming a low salt diet for 7 days.  What does this mean?  At the very least, it suggests that merely demonizing a single aspect of a dietary pattern (in this case salt), will never likely produce the intended outcome of the condition you were trying to impact.  In this case blood pressure.

The bottom line is that by consuming a diet as unprocessed as possible and using a wide variety of herbs and spices in your foods and using Celtic sea salt if you feel the need to salt your foods will have only positive effects on your long term health.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002604951000329X

IS SALT REALLY A KILLER?

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When it comes to protecting your heart, most everyone will jump up and state that lowering salt intake will protect their heart.  Few will note that refined carbs and poor intake of omega 3 fatty acids will rip apart our cardiovascular system long, long before salt would begin to be a problem.  Much like anything else in “prevention” of disease today, we seem to avoid the massive pink elephant carrying a spider monkey playing an organ grinder and point out the small spiderweb in the corner.

The true contribution of salt to cardiovascular disease and blood pressure has always been small, despite what we lead the general public to believe, and the effect of salt may really have to do with oxidative stress (in other words, in people taking better care of themselves, salt intake has no effect on blood pressure) or as a marker for processed foods (which are always higher in sodium) or maybe even as a marker for poor intake of potassium.

Either way, we focus far to much on the little things because they are easy.  Getting patients to exercise, eat right and stress less have a massive impact on heart health, but seem to be more difficult for patients to do.  I just hate to think that the general public lives under the false pretense that not salting their fast food french fries is doing their heart a favor….

Bottom line?  Avoid processed foods.  If you use salt, make it sea salt or play around with the hundreds of other spices that can flavor up whatever you’re eating.  THIS your heart will thank you for.

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2811%2960657-0/fulltext?elsca1=TL-130111&elsca2=email&elsca3=segment