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The entire field of research around salt is a colossal fuckup, for a fairly simple reason: sweat is salty. If you sweat, due to exercise or high temperatures, y

The entire field of research around salt is a colossal fuckup, for a fairly simple reason: sweat is salty. If you sweat, due to exercise or high temperatures, you lose about 1g/L of sodium. So right off the bat, all the research that's trying to find a population-wide correct amount of sodium to eat is on a wrong track, because there's no such thing. But it's even worse, because most of the research doesn't measure the amount of sodium people take in through food, it measures the amount of sodium they lose in urine. This isn't their intake, it's what's left after losses, so it's confounded by exercise. And it's even worse than that, because while the actual studies indicate that there's no benefit from cutting salt intake, some high-status organizations once said there was, and are acting as though they can't take it back without losing face. The overall result is that there are a bunch of people shouting "less salt!" and a bunch of people shouting "the same amount of salt!" and no one has any model of how much salt they actually need, so they occasionally end up deficient.

kevin_thibedeau 10y ago
It goes beyond behavioral differences. All complex life forms use sodium channels to regulate basic cellular activity. Consequently we all have a nephritic system that regulates sodium levels as a requirement for living. Too much sodium is literally pissed away. The anti-salt crowd conveniently glosses over this.
tcj_phx 10y ago
> The overall result is that there are a bunch of people shouting "less salt!" and a bunch of people shouting "the same amount of salt!" and no one has any model of how much salt they actually need, so they occasionally end up deficient. Dr. Brewer's pregnancy diet calls for as much salt as the patient wants - "salt to taste". One of the things I had to help my girlfriend with was getting her over her salt phobia - she definitely wasn't getting enough. There is a disconnect between medical science and the actual findings of physiology. Medical students are indoctrinated with lots of facts and a little dogma. The incorrect ideas stunts the progress of their field. Veterinarians know to give animals as much salt as they want.
- homero 10y ago
  Humans need salt licks

kevin_thibedeau 10y ago

It goes beyond behavioral differences. All complex life forms use sodium channels to regulate basic cellular activity. Consequently we all have a nephritic system that regulates sodium levels as a requirement for living. Too much sodium is literally pissed away. The anti-salt crowd conveniently glosses over this.

tcj_phx 10y ago

> The overall result is that there are a bunch of people shouting "less salt!" and a bunch of people shouting "the same amount of salt!" and no one has any model of how much salt they actually need, so they occasionally end up deficient. Dr. Brewer's pregnancy diet calls for as much salt as the patient wants - "salt to taste". One of the things I had to help my girlfriend with was getting her over her salt phobia - she definitely wasn't getting enough. There is a disconnect between medical science and the actual findings of physiology. Medical students are indoctrinated with lots of facts and a little dogma. The incorrect ideas stunts the progress of their field. Veterinarians know to give animals as much salt as they want.

homero 10y ago
Humans need salt licks