Salt restriction

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We are now in our late 60's and excessive salt intake physically affects my wife and I. Salt naturally occurs in our diet so adding salt is usually not necessary. I can notice the effects of excess salt, especially after eating a restaurant meal. We end up all puffy, bloated, and sore in the joints.

Just my humble opinion but that is why we prefer eating at home because I don't think much restaurant food is especially healthy. We feel better eating at home and monitoring our intake of certain ingredients.
 
I am on the minimum dose for BP medication. And I have never been admonished by my doctor to use less salt. I have never been a big salt user. Days, sometimes weeks go by before I reach for the salt shaker. I have found that using sea salt, I use even less than I did before. :angel:
 
GLC---- Could you furnish us with some valid articles that address that lack of taste for salt? I'd never heard that and would be interested in reading them.

That's a bit of old sports and military "wisdom" that predates better knowledge of hydration and is sometimes sort of correct but isn't very precise language. It's not quite "lack of taste for salt." The belief was that, if you took your salt tablets, and they didn't taste salty, it indicated you needed them. Almost certainly, the physical reality behind it is that, when significantly dehydrated, one may find a constant salty taste in one's mouth, probably from the higher concentration of salt in the saliva. (A search of SALT TASTE DEHYDRATION will find multiple sources.) That will naturally tend to lessen the contrast with anything salty that's ingested. The tablet no longer tastes as salty. No doubt a dry mouth contributes to that by not dissolving the table much before it's swallowed.

It's certainly not a reliable guide, and the real issue in dehydration is water, not salt.
 
Even cows know when they need salt in their diets and go looking for it. We are smarter than cows and our bodies know how much salt (sodium) it needs to function. My blood pressure is salt sensitive, but when I am craving something salty, it means I need it and bedamned the sodium restriction my Cardiologist deems necessary.
 
It is both sad and frightening to me how easily people can be swayed by a single news report to completely change the way we do things. We have been treated poorly by the scientific community and media as far as foods, additives and their general healthfulness.

It's interesting how much is being debunked in recent months.
 
The problems are:

1 - Scientists know what studies are for, which is primarily to point the way to the next study. It is impossible in almost all cases to account for every possible factor influencing outcomes, so the results of studies can only ever me seen within the strict context of that study and how it was designed. Scientists often so take that for granted that they fail to fully recognize that their results will be misinterpreted and that people will assume too much. They will, indeed, sometimes even make statements that sound like they are declaring the definitive answer, but it is ALWAYS implied that it's all tentative. Confronted with being taken as definitive, they may well respond, "But it was a study, and everyone knows that's all it is and that when I say it shows such and such, I mean that such and such is true ONLY if the results turn out to be truths in the future."

2 - Journalists are often rather poorly educated and are not often trained in any scientific discipline. If mostly you took journalism classes, you weren't learning much about anything else. So they don't know how science works and that studies are just steps toward the next study and that it is fully expected that conclusions will change. If it weren't true that conclusions would invariably change, science could close up shop and go fishing, since there would be nothing new to learn. But it makes a better story that so and so causes obesity and an even better story that so and so turns out to not cause obesity. Neither is the final word and was never intended by the study's author to be so. The journalist seeks story, not truth.

3 - Critical thinking skills are even more neglected than science education. When someone believes in things that they don't understand, they're at risk of accepting a magician's stage trick as reality. The journalist waved his hands and turned tentative knowledge into definitive fact, and without reading the original paper and without possessing a understanding of how science works, the reader can't possibly understand how he did it and therefore shouldn't take it as reliable fact. And in the case of more intentional deception, follow the rule: Never automatically believe anything when the person who tells you has anything to gain from your belief.


The Internet has caused people to be more ignorant than ever in human history, in terms of the shear amount of patently false things they believe to be true. Primitive man may have believed wrongly about nearly everything, but the everything didn't amount to too much. Pre-Internet, people had to make considerable effort to acquire bogus knowledge beyond the evil effects of their local newspapers and schools. Now, all the false, self-serving, and plain loony "facts" of the world are at one's fingertips.
 
This seems apropos:

2012-01-09-redflags2.jpg


Loved this further explanation below the comic (The Red Flags of Quackery v2 | Sci-ence):
Helps Your Body…: I once met an Osteopath at a small gathering. I nearly bit my tongue off as she told me about how she “helps the body heal itself.” Which is a clever way of saying “I don’t do anything, but feel free to thank me when you get better. Toodles!” Also note that if your body was really “off balance” or needed help “removing toxins,” you’d be at a real doctor, not buying herbs at CVS, because your skin would be yellow and you wouldn’t be able to stand."

Note: Osteopaths do actually receive a medical education comparable to MDs, but the origin of the profession was a little dubious.
 
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It is both sad and frightening to me how easily people can be swayed by a single news report to completely change the way we do things. We have been treated poorly by the scientific community and media as far as foods, additives and their general healthfulness.

It's interesting how much is being debunked in recent months.


It's interesting yet not at all surprising.
Food, additives, and their general healthfulness aren't all the media treats the general public poorly about.
 
KFC, Zatarain, Hamburger Helper, Ramen Noodle packets, bullion cubes, so far. Any other foods we find too salty? Just add to the list. :angel:
 
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GG, I haven't noticed that to be the case. When others cook, I don't taste bitterness. I just believe that most people don't use enough salt in cooking. This is evident if you watch an actual chef doing real cooking. They really load up with salt.

I have to agree with you Andy. I have had some dishes come out of the kitchen that were almost garbage due to the salt content. What brilliant person ever came up with the concept of salting every single layer or addition to a dish? :angel:
 
KFC, Zatarain, Hamburger Helper, Ramen Noodle packets, bullion cubes, so far. Any other foods we find too salty? Just add to the list. :angel:


I haven't had them for awhile, but as I recall, Zatarain's came out with a low sodium version of some of their stuff. It's not bad, but I do prefer me some real hambone!
 
Having lived in South Texas for four years, I can honestly say, I never had Cajun food. The closest I ever came to it was Grits with an egg over it. And there sure were a lot of Cajuns in the town I lived in. Had to be for the shrimping fleet. :angel:
 
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