For years, doctors have been telling us that too much salt is bad for us. Until now.
A study claims that cutting down on salt can actually increase the risk of dying from a heart attack or a stroke.
The research has left nutritionists scratching their heads.
Its findings indicate that those who eat the least sodium – about one teaspoon a day – don’t show any health advantage over those who eat the most.
In fact, those with less salty diets actually had slightly higher death rates from heart disease.
The study, which followed 3,681 healthy European men and women aged 60 or younger, for about eight years, also found that above-average salt intake did not appear to increase the danger of developing high blood pressure.
The report, in the latest issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, was released just three months after the U.S. government launched a public health campaign urging restaurants and food manufacturers to cut down on their use of salt.
Salt
Sodium was measured in the urine of those taking part, at the beginning and end of the study.
A little more than six per cent of the participants suffered a heart attack, a stroke or some other cardiovascular emergency during the eight years. About a third of these were fatal.
Those who consumed the least salt had a 56 per cent higher risk of death from a heart attack or stroke compared with those who consumed the most.
This was even after obesity, cholesterol levels, smoking, diabetes and other risk factors were taken into account.
There were 50 deaths in the third of participants with the lowest salt consumption, 24 in the third with medium intake and just ten deaths in those with the highest salt levels.
Lead researcher Jan Staessen, head of the hypertension laboratory at the University of Leuven, in Belgium, said: ‘Our findings do not support a generalised reduction of salt intake in the population.’
The scientists did not have a firm explanation for their results, but they reportedly speculated that low levels of salt in the body could cause more stress in the nervous system, decrease sensitivity to insulin and affect hormones that control blood pressure and sodium absorption.
But they stressed that those with high blood pressure – who were not included in the study – should still stick to a low-salt diet.
Some experts claimed last night that the findings should be taken with, well, a pinch of salt. They argue that the volunteers used in the study all started out with normal blood pressure, were white, relatively young and reasonably healthy.
Past research has shown that those with hypertension, black people, the elderly and the obese tend to react more negatively to ingesting more salt.
Many other studies have shown salt can be bad for you.
In March, Australian scientists reported that it takes only 30 minutes for a salty meal significantly to impair the arteries’ ability to pump blood around the body.
Health experts estimate that cutting average consumption by just a couple of grams a day would slash strokes by 22 per cent and heart attacks by 16 per cent, saving 17,000 lives in the UK.
Research last year suggested heart disease could be cut by almost a fifth if food companies were banned from adding too much salt to their products.
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How much salt to include in our diets has always been a controversial subject, but a European study has concluded that salt consumption is not dangerous and may in fact, be beneficial.
The study contradicts the American Medical Association, American Heart Association and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, which advocate that higher sodium consumption can increase the risk of heart disease.
The researchers studied 3,681 middle-aged Europeans who did not have high blood pressure or heart disease.
The participants were divided into three groups: low salt; moderate salt and high salt consumption. The results showed there were 50 deaths in the low salt group, 24 in the moderate consumption group and only 10 in the high consumption group.
Furthermore, the heart disease risk in the low consumption group was 56pc higher. Hence, the researchers concluded that lesser salt the participants ate, the more likely they would die from heart disease.
“The optimal level of salt in our diets has been a controversial subject for at least 20 years,” said co-authors Dian Griesel, Ph.D. and Tom Griesel.
“There is no disagreement that high blood pressure (even moderately high) is a risk factor for heart disease and stroke. However, salt consumption does not seem to have the same effect on everyone. In addition, there is usually no distinction on the type of salt used. There are many naturally harvested salts that also contain many trace minerals, which undoubtedly have an effect. Medical literature on salt consumption (like many other things) is inconsistent,” Griesel added.