Few would argue that the Western diet contains too much salt. Not just salty, processed foods that are so readily available at convenience stores and even gas stations that we probably shouldn’t be eating anyway but all the salt we add to our meals as well.
In fact, it’s often observed that people will add salt to their food before even tasting it.
“The World Health Organization recommends a sodium intake of less than 2 [grams] per day, a level that is largely based on projections made from relatively small and short-term clinical trials evaluating the effects of sodium restriction on blood pressure in primary prevention populations,” the JAMA article authors wrote.
“However, findings from prospective cohort studies, evaluating the association between sodium intake and CV [cardiovascular] events, have been conflicting. For example, although some have reported a positive association between sodium intake and CV mortality, others have not, and some have reported an inverse association.”
While few medical sources dispute the links between excessive sodium and high blood pressure, low-salt diets may have counterintuitive effects on cholesterol.
Cholesterol—which is also referred to as bad cholesterol, as opposed to HDL, high-density lipoprotein, the so-called good cholesterol—has been shown to be elevated by a low-salt diet.
“The mechanisms associated with the changes in these lipids seem to be related to the fact that limited sodium intake reduces body water content, and in an attempt to revert low plasma volume, epinephrine, renin, and angiotensin increase,” the authors wrote.
More About Insulin Resistance and Diabetes
“Type 2 diabetes is increasing worldwide in epidemic proportions ... imposing a major burden on the health care system,” research in the journal Diabetes reads. ”It is now generally accepted that insulin resistance and beta-cell dysfunction are major factors involved in the development of diabetes.”Yet what role, if any, do low-salt diets play in the current diabetes scourge?
“We propose that the 4–5-fold increase in serum aldosterone and the greater increase in plasma noradrenaline concentration following the low-salt intervention compared with the high-salt period may have contributed to the differences in insulin sensitivity following the adjustment in dietary sodium intake.”
Translation: Low sodium worsened insulin resistance.
Questions About Cardiovascular Benefits
While the cardiovascular benefits of a low-salt diet are widely believed, they’re also sometimes disputed. Research in the American Journal of Medicine states that “there is evidence that a low sodium diet may lead to a worse cardiovascular prognosis in patients with cardiometabolic risk and established cardiovascular disease.”Hyponatremia
Some may remember hearing about endurance athletes—especially marathoners—suffering from “hyponatremia” or low blood levels of sodium. Sometimes masquerading as dehydration, the condition can cause headaches, seizures, coma, and even death. In athletes, hyponatremia can result from drinking too much water without replacing the sodium lost through exertion and sweat. In the elderly, the condition can result from medications that reduce sodium levels in the blood.Experts Weigh In
“Many things in life and especially medicine, if we discover too much of something might be harmful then our natural reflex is to eliminate it completely,” Dr. May Hindmarsh, who, along with her husband, Tim, practices urgent care medicine and operates the “BSfreeMD” website, told the Epoch Times.“However, too little sodium is also harmful and possibly more so than in excess. There has been this push to cut back on salt, eliminate it, and put people on very low-sodium diets, which have been shown to be just as deleterious, if not more so.
“Hypertension is more likely to be caused from a low-salt diet because it causes insulin resistance and raises stress hormones such as adrenaline and noradrenaline and artery stiffening hormones.
“The other issue is what type of salt people are eating, and what is in it. Processed foods are laden with sodium but also many unhealthy products, such as high fructose corn syrup, preservatives, and other chemicals.”
Dr. Tim Hindmarsh told the Epoch Times, “Excessive water intake—especially if not coupled with increasing sodium intake—can result in hyponatremia, a potentially lethal complication of being low in salt.
“This is so easy to achieve that the Hawaiian ironman triathlon has had multiple cases a year of hyponatremia from low sodium consumption combined with drinking too much plain water. All this while exercising for up to 18 hours in the Hawaiian sun. No one can consume an ultra-low-salt diet and survive, period.”
Conclusion
Clearly, the jury is still out about the benefits and risks of low-sodium diets. Your doctor, of course, is the best guide for the role of sodium in your diet—granted he or she is up-to-date on the many varied findings on salt intake. Make sure your doctor is considering how whatever conditions you may have are affected by sodium levels—such as salt-sensitive high blood pressure.Too much sodium may be harmful to our health, as we’re often told, but apparently, sometimes too little is also a problem.
