Thursday, February 21, 2013

pointing fingers at the wrong villains

How synchronicitous!  I just read the year-old WAPF article on salt which ties in very neatly to my recent ponderings on the subject.

We're accustomed to seeing high-carb rodent diets being described as "high-fat" and all their ill effects being blamed on the lard in them -- as though that were good old-fashioned pig-fat from pastured swine instead of the high-PUFA, partially-hydrogenated garbage the passes for lard today.  But i'm not sure the bloated PMSing women out there (of which i was one) might have any clue that it's NOT the salt that came on their pizza or fries that is making them miserable....

Ya know what else causes water retention?  Sugar (and other carbs, especially lactose and fructose if you're intolerant).  Insulin.  Cortisol.  Allergies.  MSG.  Alcohol.  And probably a whole lot of other things, too.  But of course i keep coming back to the fact that "TABLE" SALT takes the rap.

As i pointed out before, i love salt and use it liberally at home.  I NEED salt for the sake of my digestion.  I find it hard to believe that i'm getting significantly more NaCl in restaurants.  When CW slams something that i KNOW is beneficial for me, it makes me mad that others like me (but less headstrong) might believe the idiots and forgo something that would make their health better.  And since the "logical" way CW deals with failure of a public policy is to make the original recommendations stronger, we get stupid reactions like denying school-children the use of salt-shakers....

The WAPF article makes it clear that although in a small population, severe salt restriction may lower BP by single digits, all-cause mortality in the general population seems to rise.  Why is it, with salt and dietary fats, tiny fragments of demographics getting bad results get extrapolated to the rest of us, and now that we have large-and-growing bad effects of grains and other carbs, the cautions against them DON'T happen?  If it were only the case of lobbying, i'd think the egg, dairy and meat-producers would band together and stand as strong as the wheat/corn/soy group does, but it doesn't seem to work that way.

10 comments:

  1. On my vacation, I found myself craving salt. Nope, I wasn't sweating it out (it was cold enough to wear a down coat) and I wasn't eating "health food" (unless Wendy's fits your bill). Several months ago, I downladed a free Google book called Common Salt by Godfrey Gumpel. Even in the 1800s, vegetarians were poo-pooing salt, but like a good engineer, he looked at whole systems and stated salt was necessary for digestion, and that settlements had historically been made near salt deposits, herbivores gathered at salt licks, salt deprivation had been a punishment, and wars were fought over salt.

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    1. i wonder if some other mineral might have been out of balance, and the salt-craving was your body's way of getting evened up again....

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  2. I could not agree more, Tess! I think I have weak stomach acids and I am wondering whether more salt might help.

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    1. salt might help, but remember that low thyroid can cause inadequate stomach acid, and also that h. pylori can manipulate people's physiology to reduce stomach acid (to defend itself).

      i can tell when i need to supplement betaine-HCl -- a couple of hours after a meal, if i'm unusually gassy, it implies that my acid is low and needs boosting.

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  3. I used to be a cattle rancher (family farm) until about 1990. To my knowledge the beef producers never got subsidies from the federal government unless they produced some kind of grain. The cattlemen did start assessing a $1 per head fee for promoting beef (The "Beef - It's What's for Dinner" campaign), which the rest of my family totally disagreed with having to contribute to. I don't think the beef producers have nearly the kind of lobbying dollars as the subsidized grain farmers do. No money, no power.

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    1. that's interesting.... my MIL owns half a section of wheat land in KS and it's being farmed by a fellow who splits the proceeds with her. her cut is PITIFUL, as is the CRP for the few acres that aren't usable for the purpose -- god only knows who IS getting the big bucks, but it isn't the small farmer. :-(

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  4. Some words from Dr. Jay Wortman a lowcarb expert and type two diabetic on lowcarb and salt.

    “When you cut the carbs your kidneys will release sodium. This is why people lose some water initially and why blood pressure also tends to get better on low-carb. If you are not careful to replace the lost sodium sufficiently by adding salt to your food, you will experience the effects of mild hypo-natremia. These are: headache, constipation, weakness, fatigue, low-blood pressure, othostatic hypotension and possibly leg cramps. If you get a blood test you may find that your potassium is low, too. Unfortunately, there is no reliable blood test for magnesium but it may also be low. Supplementing with salt should correct these problems. You don't need to take a potassium supplement, it will correct if you eat enough salt. Some people will have a persistent magnesium deficiency that will require supplements. This would be manifested by leg cramps and hyper-reflexia (something your doctor can check). To correct this you should take a slow-release Mg++ supplement daily.

    Many people make the mistake of restricting salt and drinking lots of water when on a low carb diet. This is virtually guaranteed to cause problems. When you look carefully at the studies that report equivocal results with a low-carb diet, this is invariably one of the reasons.”

    Kind regards Eddie

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  5. wow, talking about pointing fingers. Just reading Jack Kruse's latest blog post. It's not macronutrient ratios, it's Evil emf. Emf + carbs makes you craaaaaaazzzzzeee. Lets go to Mars!

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    1. is Mars where the Age of Cow will come to ... not FRUITion, hmmm ... meatition? i was thinking we could find our own Gilligan-type island, but i'm game for Mars! :-) gotta trot off and read JK -- and hope i understand this one.

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