My newest article for the #Canadian#Healthcare Network/ the #Medical Post. Why too much #salt in your diet is really bad.
Sorry the site is password protected, but free for doctors and pharmacists.
Here are the first few paragraphs:
JUNE 2024 --Too much of anything that’s good for you can be bad.
And if anything, Canadians consume far more sodium than is good for them. Indeed, in some cases, it’s killing them—which is why Health Canada announced that starting in early 2026, Canadians will see sodium warning labels on the front of packaged food.
The move is meant to help relieve the burden that excess sodium has on cardiovascular disease (CVD) and mortality rates. About a third of hypertension cases are caused by excess dietary sodium, translating to about 2.5 million people in Canada.
Samples of what the warning labels will look like are on the Health Canada website.
Front-of-package nutrition labeling is widely recognized as an effective tool to help counteract rising rates of diet-related chronic disease, a Health Canada spokesperson told the Medical Post in an email. However, eating out can still consist of salt-filled meals.
“In general, most foods sold in restaurants and food service establishments, as well as foods ordered for take-out and delivery, are not considered to be prepackaged and are thus exempt from offering nutrition labels,” the email said. Some establishments provide nutrition information voluntarily.
The Global Burden of Disease study states that high blood pressure is the leading risk for death in the world, killing over 10 million people per year, according to Dr. Norman Campbell, professor emeritus of medicine, physiology and pharmacology at the University of Calgary. He has conducted multiple studies on sodium and health.
“Even if you throw COVID in there and all other infectious disease, high blood pressure kills more people and disables more than all the infectious diseases . . .. But if you look down the list, after high blood pressure, dietary risks are right there; and sodium is the top dietary risk,” he said.
An extreme example of too much salt was reported after a woman died after drinking a 1,000ml bottle of soy sauce—an intake of about 160 g of salt.
In 2023, the World Health Organization (WHO) produced a report showing that issues from consuming too much sodium is a global health problem. The agency also produced a sodium reduction score card ranking countries in terms of their efforts to reduce excessive sodium intake. Canada has a mix of voluntary reduction efforts with mandatory measures in the works, but could do better. There are also score cards for sugar and trans-fatty acids.
“The background of all this is reducing sodium in the diet is one of the most cost-effective things a government can do to improve the health of the population . . .. We saw the effects of COVID—how much it costs society to prevent COVID. The estimates are that reducing sodium in the diet saves the government $13 to $18 for every dollar it invests,” said Dr. Campbell.
Why is sodium so bad?
High sodium intake increases blood pressure, but over time it can damage blood vessels and lead to atherosclerosis, heart disease, strokes and kidney failure. Evidence also suggests excess sodium acts as an inflammatory agent and contributes to the severity of various inflammatory disorders, Dr. Campbell told the Medical Post in an interview....
School Lunch Around the World - Not every country has the same recipe for brain food, by Andrew Coletti May 27, 2024
"...“School lunch is gross” is a longstanding cliche in American pop culture, and it seems just as relevant now as it was when I was a kid. In 2022, an anonymous New York City high schooler went viral for their Instagram documentations of school lunches that seemed baffling, nutritionally deficient, or just plain bad. One featured mozzarella sticks, two pieces of cauliflower, and a clementine, beside the word HELP scrawled in marinara sauce...."
And of course republicans begrudge the little bit of nutritionally useless junk American schools feed kids and would like to make kids go hungry all day.
Mexico has had a long history of resilient agricultural systems and food cultures that reflect the country’s agrobiodiversity. With GEF funding, FAO and CONABIO are reviving traditional practices to support the resilience of farmers’ livelihoods and meet the population’s nutritional needs
Photo-shoot yesterday, a news conference with the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition. Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff gave opening remarks.
Panel members focused on youth fitness and mental health. Short answer: it ain't good.
How processed food companies muffle those who author studies that put them to shame:
"One large food company, for example, asked if he would be interested in giving a half-hour talk to its senior team, for a fee of £20,000. He said he would, but he’d pay his own expenses and give the money to a food charity.
When the contract came through, he changed his mind. Within it was a clause binding him not to disparage the firm in public statements, “throughout the universe and in perpetuity”."
On pizza, I entirely second Chris van Tulleken's statement: “Pizza has become emblematic of junk food ... but proper homemade pizza is very healthy.” The hilarious bit is that making pizza at home is easy peasy: just make baguette dough (takes you 5 minutes to mix, a couple hours to raise https://albert.rierol.net/recipes.html#Fast%20baguettes%20for%20everyday%20bread ), then roll flat and top with whatever you like or happen to have at home.
The low-carb, high-fat ketogenic diet comes with promises of weight loss, but a new study says it also has some serious health risks. In mice, a keto diet increases the buildup of zombie-like cells in the heart, kidneys, lungs and brain, which can accelerate organ aging and other health problems. New Scientist has more: https://flip.it/HNFJFR #Science#Health#Diet#Nutrition#Keto
"The calorie gave the public its first penetrating view inside the foods they ate, providing an elementary understanding of #nutrition. But it would also go on to torment millions, enrich corporations, inspire generations of advertising campaigns, provoke widespread guilt and pride, and even, some argue today, ...instructing the masses to focus on calories rather than on nutrients and steering them toward highly processed carbohydrates."
story from Smithsonian https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/doctor-pioneered-counting-calories-century-ago-were-still-dealing-with-consequences-180984282/
Traditional agrifood systems conserve biodiversity and support nutrition in Mexico (www.fao.org)
Mexico has had a long history of resilient agricultural systems and food cultures that reflect the country’s agrobiodiversity. With GEF funding, FAO and CONABIO are reviving traditional practices to support the resilience of farmers’ livelihoods and meet the population’s nutritional needs