According to studies performed by the collaborators at The New England Journal of Medicine, cutting out salt in one's diet can reduce the risk of heart disease, heart attacks, and stroke greatly. Their research has found that if everyone were to consume half a teaspoon less of salt each day, at least 54,000 heart attacks and 44,000 deaths would be prevented each year. Scientists are trying to encourage food manufacturers and distributors to decrease the amount of sodium in American food products to allow for the better health of the population. The New York City government has declared its partaking in this movement-- by urging restaurant chains to reduce salt in their products by twenty-five percent in the next five years. As well, the Food and Drug Administration has been considering making it mandatory to have warning labels for foods with high levels of sodium, similar to the warning labels on cigarette packages. A spokesperson added, "we are actively looking at how to improve the nutrition content of the American content." Although, not all scientists agree with this study. Michael Alderman, a professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine implied reducing the levels of sodium in one's diet may have negative affects as well-- such as insulin resistance and hormonal imbalances. Trying to get everyone to cut salt out of their diet might be too hard for patients to oblige by according to Dr. Bibbins-Domingo. Most of these physicians mutually agree that smoking is a bigger problem in the US and we should be focusing on preventing this more serious addiction.
This article contributes to our universial knowledge about health. Salt has been said to be a factor of many different physical problems one might face, including the ones mentioned above. My father suffers from Meniere's disease, which, in short, is a type of intense vertigo. To subdue his symptoms, he's had to experiment with his diet frequently. He found his symptoms were the least occuring when he cut salt out of his diet. Personally, I do not know the relation of levels of sodium and vertigo, but in agreement to this article and my father's experience, high levels of salt cannot be good for someone.
I found this article from the New York Times in the Health section. I really liked how it compared the two sides of the presented arguement. As well, the points made from each side of the debate were valid. Although, the article could have gone into more detail about how salt affects your body. I would have benefited from the author explaining the process in which it is absorbed and so forth, and how it affects your day to day activity.
Original Article Posted Below:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/health/nutrition/21salt.html?ref=research
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Big Benefits Are Seen From Eating Less Salt, Colter Smith
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed how this review gave a lot of detail as to the legal implications of this study, such as that the New York City government wants restaurants to reduce salt in their products by 25% over 5 years. This helped to show me what affects this study could have on my life. Also, instead of blindly promoting this idea, it says that smoking is probably a more important challenge to try to tackle, which is why many scientists are choosing to study it instead. This helps to put this salt idea into perspective and show how many other large problems there are.
I also liked how she added her own story about her dad’s own experience with salt and how it helped his disease. This story helped to prove this claim and to show why this article was so important to her.
However, I do not believe she sufficiently talked about the negatives of not eating enough salt. She did hint that it could cause major problems, but did little more than hint, leaving me wondering what consequences a salt lacking diet could have. She also completely fails to mention why salt helps so much, which, especially right after biology class, left me wondering and confused.
However despite lacking the reasons that salt is bad, or how it could be good, she did have overwhelming statistics on her side. I was astounded that 44,000 deaths could be prevented each year by simply removing a half of a teaspoon of salt from the average American’s daily diet.
Big Benefits Are Seen From Eating Less Salt:
ReplyDeleteWithin Sara’s review, there were several things that were nicely presented. I really liked how she gave us numerous facts about what a “salt-less” diet could do for us. I know that when I read anything, it’s much more enjoyable when I hear statistics and numbers. It was definitely a great idea to include her father’s experiences with a salt-less diet. The review went beyond just the article and touched on the affect it has on people. I thought that another section of the review that was well presented was how Sara included a comparison between smoking and salt and how scientists compared the two risks; too much salt is obviously dangerous, but how does it compare to other health risks like smoking?
If the review could have been better I suppose that maybe Sara could have told us more about what good salt does, however, perhaps the article she reviewed lacked the same information. I think that the review could have also used Sara’s opinion on the matter (if she has one). The journalist gave both sides of the argument, but I would have liked to see the reviewer’s opinion.
I was really impressed when I read that our state’s government is making an effort to eliminate extreme amounts of salt from the food we consume while dining in restaurants throughout the state and more frequently in New York City. When hearing about their efforts to make illegal trans- fat, I was certainly impressed and proud, but now that the government is going further into this health movement I have become even more astonished.