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Decades of research have suggested that our sodium habit is killing us via hypertension and heart disease. But other research suggests it's not salt's fault after all. So, which is it?
Salt, it turns out, has not been acting alone. A new study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, implicates potassium, too. Not enough potassium. [Quanhe Yang, et al., "Sodium and Potassium Intake and Mortality Among US Adults"]
The study surveyed more than 12,000 Americans, and found that both men and women consumed way more sodium and way less potassium than is recommended. And after 15 years, people with the better balance of sodium and potassium were more likely to still be alive.
In whole plants, sodium is scarce and potassium is plentiful. But when foods are processed, that ratio is usually flipped. The two elements have opposite effects on blood vessels: sodium restricts blood flow and potassium helps it. The researchers thus suggest cutting back on salt and taking in more potassium. So forget the chips—a banana is a safer snack for your health. Just watch where you toss the peel.
—Katherine Harmon
[The above text is a transcript of this podcast.]
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15 Comments
Add Commentwow. groundbreaking results there.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhy not simply replace sodium chloride table salt with potassium chloride table salt?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThat would be a great solution, but it doesn't quite taste the same; it is hard getting people to switch over to a new concept on the vague promise of a lower risk of hypertension.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisConsumption of pure potassium salt would be extremely dangerous since an excess can cause heart arrhythmia and possibly cardiac arrest (potassium chloride is part of the lethal injection cocktail for that specific purpose). The key is to have a balanced amount of potassium and sodium - there are "mineral salt" products in the supermarket that have balanced proportions of sodium and potassium salts. They tend to taste less salty, however, which might reduce their effectiveness if you use more of it to get the taste you want.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTry givig up salt in your cooking and on the table. It is dificult for about a week, and then it is as if your taste re-sets itself into low sodium mode. Purchased foods then taste excessively salty (which they are). Try it, it is easier than giving up nicotine or sucrose.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPerhaps a bit of potassium added into table salt as is already done with iodine would be beneficial, but I suspect the real problem is mainly just too much salt.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou can take a lot of potassium before it becomes "toxic". I take a prescribed supplement for a medical condition. (The equivalent of 4,5000mg daily)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFor years (since I was a teenager) I pour my table salt into my palm and use my thumb and forefinger to control my salting. I put a partial pinch on unsalted potatoes and on any eggs I eat, but that's about it.
But table salt is usually only about a tenth of a persons sodium intake. The vast majority comes from processed foods. The average American eats 5,000 milligrams of salt daily without even picking up a salt shaker.
It is commonly forgotten that a plant-based diet, containing plenty of raw vegetables and fruits, is the ideal, and completely natural, potassium source for human nutrition. Plants also provide sufficient sodium ( e.g. celery ). Cooked foods, however, have deficient mineral content, due to them leaching out into water.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWe are the only creatures on this planet to have invented cooking- with poor health resulting from this heat damage.Cookbooks are a health hazard, and cooks are food arsonists par excellence!
youthevity.com
Cooking does beat infestations by intestinal worms and other parasites, though...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHow did those intestinal worms get into the system? From a pig's guts, we can inherit a reach-me-down tapeworm....The worm's in the animal feed! No such problem for a vegetarian!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWorms have had a bad press mostly, but they have been used therapeutically, too, as useful innards pets, to mop up the system...
They have wormed themselves wilily through all our evolutionary past, pepping up our immune system.
How did those intestinal worms get into the system? From a pig's guts, we can inherit a reach-me-down tapeworm....The worm's in the animal feed! No such problem for a vegetarian!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWorms have had a bad press mostly, but they have been used therapeutically, too, as useful innards pets, to mop up the system...
They have wormed themselves wilily through all our evolutionary past, pepping up our immune system.
Homo ergaster/homo erectus used fire, and perhaps were the first chefs de cuisine.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDoubtful they oversalted, though.
I'm just a simple country doctor! Not a worm herder. -- Bones
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIntestinal worm eggs also are found on raw vegetables ... ascarides in particular. In a day when many soldiers suffered from dysentery and such, the Mongols were fiercely strong - they grilled everything including the veggies.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNot all veggies are potassium rich - swiss chard for example. And bananas are not the best source of potassium as they also are high in carbohydrates. You would have to eat 4 bananas to just bring the K even to the Na from a cup of canned beef broth (other soups are worse). The ideal ratio K:Na is three or greater -- that would be approx. 12 bananas(1200 calories) per cup of canned beef broth. See the problem?
The Finns did extensive research on the K:Na ratio and the require, via legislation, that the salt in processed foods be properly balanced for K:Na. Their stroke and heart attack rates went way down from the worst in the world. Calcium and magnesium are the other important duo. The salt they developed is available in the US as "CardioSalt". But it doesn't solve the problem in the US because so much sodium is added at the processing plants - even to sweet foods and sodas. One can buy KCl at the supermarket and use it to balance out the sodium but that makes most processed foods extremely salty tasting. It is best to treat food properly at the processing plants by NOT adding so much sodium and NOT to soak fresh meats and chicken in sodium brine as natural meats are a good source of potassium if left as is.
Potassium should be part of the nutrition labels. Some manufacturers already list it voluntarily.
In the meantime the only way to get a healthy diet is to cook everything from scratch --- you would never add as much salt to your own food as they add at the factories. Amazing how good a high potassium soup tastes compared to the commercial types. And if one wants more sodium one can always add some.
Since it is not possible to remove Na from food once added, the amounts added to processed foods should be strictly limited to be as low as possible.
Seems to be a good study that helps to continue to decipher the "salt question". Makes sense that the Na v K balance is the factor.
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