{"id":2518,"date":"2013-03-11T11:16:35","date_gmt":"2013-03-11T11:16:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zoeharcombe.com\/?p=2518"},"modified":"2019-04-07T08:49:48","modified_gmt":"2019-04-07T07:49:48","slug":"salt-awareness-week-10-things-to-be-aware-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zoeharcombe.com\/2013\/03\/salt-awareness-week-10-things-to-be-aware-of\/","title":{"rendered":"Salt Awareness Week – 10 things to be aware of"},"content":{"rendered":"
March 11-17 2013 is “Salt Awareness Week” in the UK – what exactly might we like to be aware of?<\/p>\n
Let’s get some definitions out of the way first. Salt can be unrefined or refined. Unrefined salt is also known as sea salt. Unrefined (sea) salt comes with many valuable minerals and natural elements. Refined salt is also known as table salt. This is made up of sodium and chloride. There are approximately 2.4g of sodium in 6g salt. This means that approximately 40% of salt is sodium. You’ll see sodium on food labels, rather than salt.<\/p>\n
Here are 10 things that you may find interesting about salt…<\/p>\n
1) Like every other government target, the salt dictat has no evidence base<\/strong><\/p>\n The NHS wants us to eat “no more than 6g salt per day.” (Ref 1) (which equates to 2,400mg sodium). Why? I have no idea and nor does the NHS. Why not 7? Why not 5? Why have a target at all? Goodness only knows. Just like 5-a-day, 14\/21 alcohol units, 20-30g saturated fat, 18g fibre – none of these precise targets has precise evidence.<\/p>\n The NHS web site is supposed to provide evidence for government policy. Here is “Salt – the facts<\/a>” which opens with “Many\u00a0of us in the UK eat too much salt. Too much salt can raise your\u00a0blood pressure, which puts you at increased risk\u00a0of health problems such as heart disease and stroke” and then it goes on to tell you how to cut your salt intake. I don’t know about you but I found those ‘facts’ quite underwhelming.<\/p>\n 2) We need to consume salt (and potassium) or we die<\/strong><\/p>\n We die without salt. It’s as simple as that. Unlike cholesterol, which is also utterly life vital, our body doesn’t make salt. The term “essential nutrient” in nutrition mean that it is essential that we consume the nutrient. Salt is thus an essential nutrient. Fortunately it is in the majority of real foods, including water, and so ingestion of this vital mineral is not difficult.<\/p>\n Potassium is another essential dietary mineral. The potassium\/sodium balance, is absolutely critical to the overall functioning of every cell in the human body. If salt levels fall too low, a condition called Hyponatremia can develop, which can be fatal<\/a>. (Ref 2)<\/p>\n 3) Salt has nothing to do with obesity<\/strong><\/p>\n The inclusion of salt in the Academy of Royal Colleges obesity report (Ref 3) was quite bizarre because salt has nothing directly to do with obesity. It has no calories, no macronutrients (no fat, no protein, no carbohydrate) and therefore cannot directly impact obesity.<\/p>\n There may be an indirect argument that salt could encourage people to eat things. However, I would argue that people may desire doughnuts or biscuits (combinations of flour, sugar and salt), but that they would be unlikely to crave, say, anchovies, unless salt deficient for some reason. I would then expect a salt-deprived person to stop consuming anchovies once any salt deficiency were corrected and not to binge on them. The ‘but for’ test therefore points to the refined carbohydrates, containing salt, being substances of desire and not salt per se<\/em>.<\/p>\n 4) CASH has it in for salt<\/strong><\/p>\n A charity called Consensus Action on Salt and Health (CASH) exists purely to campaign against salt. As the web site <\/a>says: “CASH was set up in 1996 as a response to the refusal of the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) to endorse the COMA recommendations to reduce salt intake.” (COMA stands for Committee On Medical Aspects of Food Policy).<\/p>\n The COMA report merely says (and I quote) “The panel recommends that the dietary intake of common salt should not be increased further and that consideration should be given to ways and means of decreasing it.”<\/em><\/p>\n