5 ms·

Eggs could easily be replaced with salt. Consuming too much salt (more than 2g a day) is heavily discouraged by some because it is said to increase the risks of

Eggs could easily be replaced with salt. Consuming too much salt (more than 2g a day) is heavily discouraged by some because it is said to increase the risks of cardiovascular diseases as well as increase blood pressure to a dangerous level, but others repudiate these claims and assert they are untrue, and that salt has positive health benefits above this limit. Even if we take a group of people, put them in a closed place and strictly control what they eat, it is extremely difficult to say if a certain food has had a particular impact on X or not. There are some many elements which are unrelated to nutrition at play that X could decrease or increase for any reason other than what one ate: stress, tiredness, physical activity, mood... Now, I reckon the wisest thing to do is to follow what the author concludes with: eat moderately and have a balanced nutrition. I doubt we'll ever get concrete and truthful research on nutrition soon enough. We first need to learn more about the extremely complex system that is the human body.

snarf21 5y ago
Agreed. The thing that irritates me so much in all these studies is how they conflate correlation and causation. Studies to truly isolate just one ingredient would be both time and cost prohibitive. We are better served by just eating as varied and unprocessed a diet as possible.
caeril 5y ago
I think the issue with salt and eggs is that we talk of humans in the aggregate. For eggs, there is some small percentage of the population that passes the cholesterol into actual high levels of serum LDL. For salt, there is some small percentage of the population that reacts to high sodium levels with hypertension. And these subsets of population studies skew the results to a degree that adversely affects the conclusions for the median case. For most of us, dumping salt onto a plate filled with eggs is not only fine, but healthy. Medicine deals in aggregates, averages, and statistical variation, which is to some degree useful. But it does precisely nothing to offer testing to tell you if you are in a reactive or nonreactive group to stimulus X, which would be extremely useful. We do this with allergies - stick 50 different allergens on a grid pattern into your back to determine your precise reactivity. But with nutrition? Haha, go screw yourself, all humans are the same, eat your 14 servings of grains, regard bacon and eggs as poison, and we'll medicate you for your resultant metabolic syndrome.
- bserge 5y ago
  Pretty much. Same with humans with a "leaky" blood-brain barrier. They can actually get GABA and other amino acids from the stomach to the brain, leading to vastly different effects than the majority of people get.
- fivefifty 5y ago
  This is very true, a few years ago that I started eating around 4-6 eggs a day because it seemed a good source of nutrients and I had seen various articles saying the cholesterol thing was a myth etc. After about 3 weeks of that many eggs per day, I ended up at the doctor feeling lightheaded and not quite right and turned out my blood pressure was insanely high and after a blood test my cholesterol was through the roof. I cut out the eggs but otherwise kept my diet fairly similar and about a month later my bloodwork showed I was back to normal cholesterol. Definitely there are some people who when they eat eggs it will spike their blood cholesterol significantly, but I have also seen other people who can eat lots of eggs and it doesn't seem to change their cholesterol in bloodwork at all.
kevin_thibedeau 5y ago
> it is said to increase the risks of cardiovascular diseases How? Salt is a convenient bogeyman, but nobody can demonstrate what it role it plays as an agent of disease. Every cell in your body regulates isotonic balance and excess sodium is rapidly excreted. Complex lifeforms wouldn't exist without this fundamental ability.
- Mikeb85 5y ago
  It was demonized because of the vast quantities contained in many processed foods but you're right and to add to that you'll die much quicker from a lack of salt than from excess salt.
- sithadmin 5y ago
  The link between high sodium intake and elevated blood pressure is well documented. This is mostly because of the attempt of body systems to maintain isotonic balance. There’s also a signficant portion of the population with a genetic predisposition to have above-average increases in blood pressure shortly after consuming large amounts of salt, to the point that it will even cause hypertension in some people that had otherwise normal blood pressure. Salt -> elevated blood pressure -> complicating factor in pulmonary and cardiac disease.
- hdjjhhvvhga 5y ago
  It is very simple. If you suffer from high blood pressure (above 140/90mm Hg) and your sodium intake is considerable, your blood pressure rises even more. You can easily set up a study with a control group and test it repeatedly, the results will be the same. However, the mitigating factor is potassium. If you consume an adequate amount of foods rich in potassium, the negative effect of sodium on your blood pressure is neutralized somehow. The exact behaviors depend on the amounts of each. And here's the problem: in salt, sodium is very concentrated. You would have to eat a large amount of foods considered rich in potassium, such as tomatoes, in order to neutralize a teaspoon of salt.
  - sithadmin 5y ago
    You don’t even have to have high blood pressure for above ‘normal’ (~2000mg/day) salt intake to create the effect. It’s observable in people with normal blood pressure as well, and pronounced in a subset of the population with a gene that appears to worsen the effect. The potassium factor is why many doctors often recommend sea/himalayan salt — these salts usually have a bunch of other minerals, including potassium. For anyone wondering, no, it’s not a good idea to try to self medicate the combination of high blood pressure + a sodium heavy diet with potassium supplements. Do it wrong and you’ll end up with hyperkalemia, which is both very uncomfortable and potentially life-threatening.
mrfusion 5y ago
I constantly see people suffer through painful cramps after exercising because they refuse to replace the salt they lost through sweating due to salt being bad for you.
jonasmerlin 5y ago
Relevant Scientific American article about the dubious scientific foundation the general vilification of salt is based on: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/its-time-to-end-the-war-on-salt/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/its-time-to-end-t...

snarf21 5y ago

Agreed. The thing that irritates me so much in all these studies is how they conflate correlation and causation. Studies to truly isolate just one ingredient would be both time and cost prohibitive. We are better served by just eating as varied and unprocessed a diet as possible.

caeril 5y ago

I think the issue with salt and eggs is that we talk of humans in the aggregate. For eggs, there is some small percentage of the population that passes the cholesterol into actual high levels of serum LDL. For salt, there is some small percentage of the population that reacts to high sodium levels with hypertension. And these subsets of population studies skew the results to a degree that adversely affects the conclusions for the median case. For most of us, dumping salt onto a plate filled with eggs is not only fine, but healthy. Medicine deals in aggregates, averages, and statistical variation, which is to some degree useful. But it does precisely nothing to offer testing to tell you if you are in a reactive or nonreactive group to stimulus X, which would be extremely useful. We do this with allergies - stick 50 different allergens on a grid pattern into your back to determine your precise reactivity. But with nutrition? Haha, go screw yourself, all humans are the same, eat your 14 servings of grains, regard bacon and eggs as poison, and we'll medicate you for your resultant metabolic syndrome.

bserge 5y ago
Pretty much. Same with humans with a "leaky" blood-brain barrier. They can actually get GABA and other amino acids from the stomach to the brain, leading to vastly different effects than the majority of people get.
fivefifty 5y ago
This is very true, a few years ago that I started eating around 4-6 eggs a day because it seemed a good source of nutrients and I had seen various articles saying the cholesterol thing was a myth etc. After about 3 weeks of that many eggs per day, I ended up at the doctor feeling lightheaded and not quite right and turned out my blood pressure was insanely high and after a blood test my cholesterol was through the roof. I cut out the eggs but otherwise kept my diet fairly similar and about a month later my bloodwork showed I was back to normal cholesterol. Definitely there are some people who when they eat eggs it will spike their blood cholesterol significantly, but I have also seen other people who can eat lots of eggs and it doesn't seem to change their cholesterol in bloodwork at all.

kevin_thibedeau 5y ago

> it is said to increase the risks of cardiovascular diseases How? Salt is a convenient bogeyman, but nobody can demonstrate what it role it plays as an agent of disease. Every cell in your body regulates isotonic balance and excess sodium is rapidly excreted. Complex lifeforms wouldn't exist without this fundamental ability.

Mikeb85 5y ago
It was demonized because of the vast quantities contained in many processed foods but you're right and to add to that you'll die much quicker from a lack of salt than from excess salt.
sithadmin 5y ago
The link between high sodium intake and elevated blood pressure is well documented. This is mostly because of the attempt of body systems to maintain isotonic balance. There’s also a signficant portion of the population with a genetic predisposition to have above-average increases in blood pressure shortly after consuming large amounts of salt, to the point that it will even cause hypertension in some people that had otherwise normal blood pressure. Salt -> elevated blood pressure -> complicating factor in pulmonary and cardiac disease.
hdjjhhvvhga 5y ago
It is very simple. If you suffer from high blood pressure (above 140/90mm Hg) and your sodium intake is considerable, your blood pressure rises even more. You can easily set up a study with a control group and test it repeatedly, the results will be the same. However, the mitigating factor is potassium. If you consume an adequate amount of foods rich in potassium, the negative effect of sodium on your blood pressure is neutralized somehow. The exact behaviors depend on the amounts of each. And here's the problem: in salt, sodium is very concentrated. You would have to eat a large amount of foods considered rich in potassium, such as tomatoes, in order to neutralize a teaspoon of salt.
- sithadmin 5y ago
  You don’t even have to have high blood pressure for above ‘normal’ (~2000mg/day) salt intake to create the effect. It’s observable in people with normal blood pressure as well, and pronounced in a subset of the population with a gene that appears to worsen the effect. The potassium factor is why many doctors often recommend sea/himalayan salt — these salts usually have a bunch of other minerals, including potassium. For anyone wondering, no, it’s not a good idea to try to self medicate the combination of high blood pressure + a sodium heavy diet with potassium supplements. Do it wrong and you’ll end up with hyperkalemia, which is both very uncomfortable and potentially life-threatening.

mrfusion 5y ago

I constantly see people suffer through painful cramps after exercising because they refuse to replace the salt they lost through sweating due to salt being bad for you.

jonasmerlin 5y ago

Relevant Scientific American article about the dubious scientific foundation the general vilification of salt is based on: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/its-time-to-end-the-war-on-salt/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/its-time-to-end-t...