2 ms·

If you look at the numbers in the Wiki link you provided, the reduction in BP in DASH dieters was small in non-hypertensives and not exactly huge in hypertensiv

If you look at the numbers in the Wiki link you provided, the reduction in BP in DASH dieters was small in non-hypertensives and not exactly huge in hypertensives. "Respectively, the DASH or “combination” diet lowered blood pressures by an average of 5.5 and 3.0 mm Hg for systolic and diastolic, compared with the control diet. The minority portion of the study sample and the hypertensive portion both showed the largest reductions in blood pressure from the combination diet against the control diet. The hypertensive subjects experienced a drop of 11.4 mm Hg in their systolic and 5.5 mm Hg in their diastolic phases." I question whether the 5.5/3 mmHg is really worth eating bland low sodium food. Statistical significance does not necessarily imply clinical significance, and you're asking people to give up something pretty big. Willpower is a limited resource. We should have good reasons to ask people to use it up. Here's an abstract of a metaanalysis which reaches roughly the same conclusion: http://www.nature.com/ajh/journal/v24/n8/full/ajh2011115a.html http://www.nature.com/ajh/journal/v24/n8/full/ajh2011115a.ht...

einhverfr 14y ago
I'd agree. I have had times in my life where I have had to increase my salt consumption to avoid problems. These include everything from altitude sickness to dehydration caused by eating a diet too high in fruit. However, at the same time I don't think that things are as clear-cut as in the article. One of the serious issues we find in current dietary trends is that we eat more prepared foods which tend to be high in salt, hydrogenated oils, and sugars. So I personally side both with the idea that we have gone overboard in trying to reduce salt and also the idea that the modern American diet tends towards too much salt. I would also make the somewhat controversial argument that I think that anything we replace salt with will be even worse. The solution is to eat more fresh foods and fewer junk foods and prepared foods, not try to engineer some sort of low sodium equivalents.

einhverfr 14y ago

I'd agree. I have had times in my life where I have had to increase my salt consumption to avoid problems. These include everything from altitude sickness to dehydration caused by eating a diet too high in fruit. However, at the same time I don't think that things are as clear-cut as in the article. One of the serious issues we find in current dietary trends is that we eat more prepared foods which tend to be high in salt, hydrogenated oils, and sugars. So I personally side both with the idea that we have gone overboard in trying to reduce salt and also the idea that the modern American diet tends towards too much salt. I would also make the somewhat controversial argument that I think that anything we replace salt with will be even worse. The solution is to eat more fresh foods and fewer junk foods and prepared foods, not try to engineer some sort of low sodium equivalents.