Salt
Salt is sodium chloride. It supplies sodium and chloride for extracellular fluid volume, nerve firing, and stomach acid.
Mainstream guidelines restrict sodium for blood pressure. Survey data McCarron highlighted showed the opposite pattern: people who ate the most salt had the lowest pressure; people who ate the least salt had the highest.[1] The original analysis, of 10,372 US adults in the HANES I survey, found higher sodium intake associated with lower mean systolic blood pressure across the population, though calcium and potassium intake showed the strongest links to hypertension.[2]
About 25 years ago, David McCarron noticed that the governments data on diet and hypertension showed that the people who ate the most salt had the lowest blood pressure, and those who ate the least salt had the highest pressure.
Michael Alderman's follow-up of 20,729 adults in the original NHANES I cohort found the same inverse pattern for hard outcomes, not just blood pressure: lower sodium intake was associated with higher, not lower, all-cause and cardiovascular mortality over follow-up.[4]
Pair salt with adequate calcium and magnesium. Very low sodium raises aldosterone and increases magnesium loss. Raising salt can rebalance minerals under stress.[1]
Estrogen and pregnancy
[edit]an increased intake of salt is highly protective against the effects of excess estrogen and toxemia of pregnancy.
Low-salt advice in pregnancy grew with diuretic marketing. Older clinical reports linked restricted salt and malnutrition to eclampsia. See Estrogen, Progesterone.
Thyroid, glucose, adrenaline
[edit]Salt, which helps to maintain blood sugar, also tends to lower adrenalin, and hypothyroid people often lose salt too easily in their urine and sweat.
Salt supports blood volume and glucose stability. Low thyroid increases salt loss in urine and sweat. Low salt then raises adrenaline. A Cochrane meta-analysis of 185 randomized trials found cutting sodium intake from 201 to 66 mmol/day lowered blood pressure only slightly in normotensive people (-1.09 mmHg systolic) while raising aldosterone by 127%, noradrenaline by 27%, and adrenaline by 14%.[7] See Thyroid, Glucose, Adrenaline, Stress.
Salt and stomach/colon cancer
[edit]Epidemiological links between salty/pickled foods and stomach cancer are usually confounded by the other contents of those foods (oxidized fats, fungal toxins in dried/fermented products) rather than sodium chloride itself. In a rat colon-carcinogenesis model, a diet of 60% bacon (about 5% NaCl) reduced precancerous colon lesions by 20% compared to casein- or lard-based control diets, with increased water intake and fecal moisture (diluting colonic nitrous compounds) proposed as the salt-driven mechanism; this contrasts with human epidemiological associations between processed meat and colorectal cancer risk, which likely reflect other components of processed meat rather than salt.[8]
Forms and use
[edit]Table salt, sea salt, and mineral salt all supply sodium chloride. Pick clean product without anti-caking junk if sensitive. Intake rises with heat, exercise, coffee, and low-carb stress. Broth, cheese, and salted food count.
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Ray Peat, "Calcium and disease," raypeat.com.
- ↑ McCarron DA, Morris CD, Henry HJ, Stanton JL. "Blood pressure and nutrient intake in the United States," Science. 1984;224(4656):1392-8. doi:10.1126/science.6729459.
- ↑ Calcium and Disease: Hypertension, organ calcification, & shock, vs. respiratory energy, Ray Peat newsletter
- ↑ Alderman MH, Cohen H, Madhavan S. "Dietary sodium intake and mortality: the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES I)," Lancet. 1998;351(9105):781-785. PMID 9519949.
- ↑ Mega Master Ray Newsletter, Ray Peat newsletter compilation
- ↑ Preventing and Treating Cancer with Progesterone, Ray Peat newsletter
- ↑ Graudal NA, Hubeck-Graudal T, Jurgens G. "Effects of low sodium diet versus high sodium diet on blood pressure, renin, aldosterone, catecholamines, cholesterol, and triglyceride," Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2017;4(4):CD004022.
- ↑ Parnaud G, Peiffer G, Taché S, Corpet DE. "Effect of meat (beef, chicken, and bacon) on rat colon carcinogenesis," Nutr Cancer. 1998;32(3):165-173.