Salt: New Research on Sodium and Health

Although research has long implicated high sodium levels as a means of aggravating already high blood pressure, individuals without hypertension have long been thought to be immune to the effects of higher levels of sodium intake. After all, salt is ubiquitous in our food, used in everything from soups to preserved meats to do-it-yourself sauce packets. Even some vegetables (kale and seaweed for instance) contain salt as a natural ingredient. Avoiding salt entirely is virtually impossible, and recent research argues that a truly salt-free diet is far unhealthier than a heavily salted one.

However, recently published research from the University of Minnesota indicates that high levels of salt intake are injurious to all individuals regardless of hypertensivity. The research, published in the journal Hypertension, replicated the 1990 study of Tobian and Hanlon. Specially-bred rats which are highly resistant to sodium-induced hypertension were fed a high-sodium diet, while a control group was fed a low-sodium diet. Although blood pressures in both groups stayed well within normal bounds, arterial lesions rapidly formed in the high-salt group. Indeed, by 15 weeks on the high-salt diet all 49 rats had died, whereas the 51 control rats were still alive.

This seems to unambiguously state that high-salt diets, regardless of blood pressure problems, are injurious to health. Many people, realizing the salt intake levels in their diets are unhealthily high, have chosen to switch to a “light” salt, a blend of sodium chloride and potassium chloride. As the taste of salt is produced by the halide reaction on the salt-sensing taste buds (unlike most of the rest of our sense of “taste” which is actually smell-driven), the blend works well when on simply considers the flavor. No real change can be detected by 87% of the population; the remaining 13% may taste a slightly bitter or metallic aftertaste as a result of switching to the blend.