Dietary Sodium Good Or Bad?

May 20, 2008

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An analysis of NHANES, which is the periodic National Health and Nutrition Survey conducted by the Federal government, suggests that low sodium intake increases cardiovascular risk. This finding is contrary to pretty much the majority of studies done in the last decade.

The NHANES study is supposed to be a snapshot of the state of the health of the nation. For the current conclusion they looked at what participants, recruited between 1988 and 1994 and at least 30 years old, said they had eaten in the last 24 hours. The finding was that those with the lowest sodium intake had higher rates of cardiovascular disease.

These findings go against a lot of studies. So why should the finding be different? One concern about the study is that it only considered what was eaten in the prior 24 hours and probably most of the participants are expecting to be asked about their diet. It is hard to tell with these types of recall how accurate the information is. I know from participating in a study years ago that people deliberately or more frequently unconsciously are not accurate on their reported food consumption. However, I have tried but I cannot think of why there should be such a difference in the results.

If this study is correct, I am in deep trouble. I am one of the few people who don’t like salt. I don’t like salt in food; I think it ruins the taste. I’m not worried (yet), there are so many studies that show that a high salt diet is unhealthy for many.

photo credit: Alicia Nijdam