Netizens may think otherwise, but scientific studies show that eliminating salt from one’s diet is not a healthy move. Both excessive salt consumption, as well as low intake of sodium, are injurious to health. Moderation is key.
By Nabeela Khan Inayati
Over the last few years, salt has gained a bad reputation, with people associating high salt consumption with health conditions such as high blood pressure and heart disease. Is too much salt really the villain that it is made out to be?
According to an update of the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study published in The Lancet, sodium intake is associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) only in communities where the average intake is more than five grams per day. Among all the populations, only those from China showed a consistently high intake of sodium. The culprit was the liberal use of soy sauce in the country!
The study, conducted among 94,000 participants across 18 countries for an average period of eight years, found that very low levels of salt actually led to increased risks of heart attacks and deaths. “Our study adds to growing evidence to suggest that, at moderate intake, sodium may have a beneficial role in cardiovascular health, but a potentially more harmful role when intake is very high or very low” said Professor Andrew Mente, one of the researchers from PURE study.
WHO recommends daily sodium consumption of less than two grams, as a preventive measure against cardiovascular disease. However, the recommendation is based on individual-level data from short-term trials of blood pressure (BP) without data relating to low sodium intake to reduced cardiovascular events.
According to a 2011 reviewmade up of seven studies, salt reduction had no effect on the risk of heart disease or death. A review of over 7,000 participantsshowed that reduced salt intake did not affect the risk of death and had only a weak association with the risk of heart disease.
Another studypublished in the American Journal of Hypertension in 2014 found that both low sodium intake and high sodium intake are associated with increased mortality. The finding is consistent with a U-shaped association between sodium intake and health outcomes. Interestingly, the study also asserts that the association of salt intake with blood pressure is overestimated.
There’s need for further research, with rich data, to determine the exact ways in which salt consumption affects health. While the debate continues on social media, it’s good to remember that moderation is the key. Eliminating salt from one’s diet does not automatically decrease one’s risk of heart disease or death.
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