Interesting, thanks for that. I hadn’t seen it yet. Though the rest still stands, and as mentioned in the paper, reducing sodium intake is still recommended for other health benefits. There is a wealth of other research showing that most people in North America should dramatically reduce their sodium intake.
> Reduction of processed meat intake may be an effective strategy for CRC prevention, while sodium reduction should still be recommended to achieve other health benefits.
Apart from that, I’m still seeing evidence of correlation with stomach cancer, even if not in the lower GI tract:
Given the connection to stomach cancer and cardiovascular disease, it does seem wise to be careful about salt intake.
Regarding west African diets, are they high in salted fermented foods or just fermented foods? It seems if the food is low in salt, it’s probably just fine
There is a wealth of other research showing that most people in North America should dramatically reduce their sodium intake.
The evidence for this seems much less conclusive than most people think: https://examine.com/nutrition/awful-nutrition-myths/#summary.... The tl;dr is that most of that salt comes from crappy food, and that’s what you want to fix - it’s not the salt as such.
It really is the salt though, and examine says as much:
> Some myths contain a grain of truth. Studies have associated excess salt with hypertension (high blood pressure),[54] kidney damage,[55] and an increased risk of cognitive decline.[56][5
The thing is, a lot of people have no idea that their salt intake is way too high. You’re right that the salt tends to come from processed foods, but the salt is still a problem.
I’m not trying to suggest the processed foods are not a problem, either. It’s a compounding problem, and it’s a massive one.
To be fair, that says "a grain of truth", and that's contained within a section entitled: "Myth 6: Salt is bad for you". The summary says:
But a drastic decrease in salt intake has not shown uniform benefit in clinical trials. Most people will benefit more from a diet of mostly unprocessed foods than from micromanaging their salt intake.
As an example, salt-sensitive hypertension is a condition which some people have, but most people don't. If you don't, then salt will generally not affect your blood pressure adversely (it will go up temporarily if you eat a whole Domino's pizza, but will quickly go down again).
There are some interesting points in this podcast and related resources/sources (not a fan of all of this site’s content, though Gregor is good at compiling research):
My take away from this and other sources is that we don’t have proper long-term, randomized, human trials to determine exactly what to say about this. At the same time, there are cases where a reduction is clearly helpful but no typical cases where an increase is beneficial.
I’m certainly not out to debate or disprove you here — I’d really like to eat more salt, but the evidence I come across doesn’t justify it. I’d rather be wrong, though.
> Reduction of processed meat intake may be an effective strategy for CRC prevention, while sodium reduction should still be recommended to achieve other health benefits.
Apart from that, I’m still seeing evidence of correlation with stomach cancer, even if not in the lower GI tract:
https://www.wcrf.org/salt-shaking-up-the-link-with-stomach-c...
Given the connection to stomach cancer and cardiovascular disease, it does seem wise to be careful about salt intake.
Regarding west African diets, are they high in salted fermented foods or just fermented foods? It seems if the food is low in salt, it’s probably just fine