Taste buds can adapt to low salt diet:
"One of the major barriers to sticking to a low salt diet is that people do not like the taste, but few studies have addressed this issue," said study author Professor Misook Chung of the University of Kentucky, Lexington, US. "Our pilot study in patients with high blood pressure shows that it is possible to change taste perception and learn to like food with less salt."
[...] The researchers developed the Sodium Watchers Programme – Hypertension (SWaP-HTN) for gradual taste adaptation to low salt food. This study examined its short-term effects on sodium intake, blood pressure, preference for salty food, and enjoyment of a sodium restricted diet. [...]. Participants received an electronic device that detects salt content to enable them to identify and avoid high salt food.
Professor Chung said: "In the intervention group, sodium intake dropped by 1,158 mg per day, which was a 30% reduction from baseline, while the control group increased daily intake by 500 mg. Enjoyment of a low salt diet increased in the intervention group, from 4.8 to 6.5 on a 10-point scale, although patients still preferred salty food. It is likely that the intervention did not translate to a statistically significant fall in blood pressure because of the small sample size."
She concluded: "Our study indicates that we can retrain our taste buds to enjoy low sodium food and gradually reduce the amount of salt we eat. The gradual taste adaptation programme has the potential to control blood pressure but needs to be tested in a larger trial with longer follow up."
(Score: 5, Insightful) by sjames on Tuesday May 24 2022, @05:05AM (17 children)
Adapting to the taste is no big deal, easily done. This is especially true if you cook your own food. The hard part is any sort of dining out or processed food. There are very few restaurants that both have published sodium levels and sodium levels that don't represent more than an entire day's allotment of sodium in a single entree. At one place, I could have a grilled cheese with no sides from the child's menu and that would be it for the day. Somehow, I don't think that would work out.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by janrinok on Tuesday May 24 2022, @06:09AM (16 children)
I agree. I (or my wife before me) have always cooked my own food. People can always add salt if they prefer, but one cannot easily take salt out of a meal. Living in France most decent restaurants do not over-salt food - it tends to be the fast food places or the ready-made mass produced meals that are the worst culprits.
There is a downside of course - sometimes when I go visit friends and have a meal with them I wonder how they can taste each of the individual ingredients in this dish. All I can taste is too much salt. Yet those same people when they visit me rave about my cooking as though I am doing something magic when preparing the food. Go figure.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Tuesday May 24 2022, @03:10PM (14 children)
America puts way too much salt in all food. One slice of restaurant pizza, and you've exceeded your recommended sodium intake for the day.
One time, I managed to avoid salt for about a month. Not easy. You basically can't eat out at all, and not eating out is un-American. When circumstances pushed me back onto the typical American diet, I could taste how incredibly salty the pizza was. It didn't last. About 2 days, and my taste buds were again desensitized.
It's not that I can't cook. It's that if the family isn't on board, it's 10x harder to do it. The sort of crap I get is discovering that the counter space I cleared and cleaned the night before has been taken for some urgent need of the S. O.'s. Please don't disturb it! When I clean the counter, again, working on a different spot, I get crap about having touched some old wrapper or dirty plate with a trace of spoiled food, and that I didn't wash my hands in hot enough water afterwards, so all the food I started preparing for cooking has to be thrown out. Pointing out that the process of cooking will kill the germs makes no impression whatsoever. I get told that I don't know how to cook properly. Also, the ingredients have to be the finest quality organics, fresh, with the "best by" date at least 3 days in the future. That doubles the cost of cooking at home. Makes take out cheaper. So, Taco Bell ho! Yeah, I know, Taco Bell sure as heck doesn't use fine quality ingredients. Yeah, another massive double standard.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Tuesday May 24 2022, @03:32PM (3 children)
Thanks - that gave me many a chuckle.
The problem with 'best before' dates is that some people think that they mean 'deadly poisonous' if you go once minute past that date!
My BiL - who does most of the cooking in his house, goes through the fridge regularly checking dates and will happily throw away jars and packets that are just about to pass their best before date. I just find the whole thing a waste of money and mildly amusing.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bart9h on Tuesday May 24 2022, @04:19PM (2 children)
It's not "a waste of money and mildly amusing".
It's more like "a waste of resources and pollution and highly infuriating", specially if you think of the many who can't afford.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by janrinok on Tuesday May 24 2022, @06:13PM (1 child)
I look at this in two phases. Up until the point that the food is discarded, it has provided numerous jobs and everyone has been paid for their efforts. The only one losing money is my BiL.
When I was young I was encouraged to eat everything on my plate because "people in Africa were starving". Whether I ate my meal or not, it was never from this point forward going to help starving people anywhere, let alone a few 1000s of miles away. It would have been more effective to not give portions that were bigger than was required or wanted. Any food left over could have been used for a meal tomorrow but, having been on my plate, it was now deemed to be poisoned to such a degree that only throwing it in the bin or on the compost heap was a viable solution.
With my own children, I would ask them how much they wanted. If they asked for more than I thought was reasonable I would serve them a smaller portion but invite them to have a subsequent helping if they were still hungry. They could always have more if they wanted it. But if it went onto their plate then they had to eat it all. They quickly and naturally understood how much they could actually consume and nobody in my family has turned into an obese blob.
So now we look at the waste of money. I don't know what kind of car you drive or where you live but, particularly if you are an American, I expect that you drive everywhere. That uses fuel which costs money. I don't judge you for it, It is your money and you can do with it as you choose. I frequently walk to local shops and bring my purchases home in a rucksack even though I live in a rural area. It is good exercise and it helps keep any weight I might put on to a reasonable amount. It costs me nothing in fuel. I don't believe that I eat any more food because I walk to the store more frequently than others do.
Of course, my BiL could save money by shopping more wisely - so he does. He plans out every meal for everyday and goes and does a weekly shop to purchase what he needs for that week. But sometimes he and his wife get invited to dinner unexpectedly and at least one planned meal is not used on the day it was intended. Sometimes they just fancy a lighter meal in hotter weather, or a more calorie dense meal in colder weather. Does he throw a lot of food away? No - but he will still discard some things that I might elect to save and eat in the next few days instead. Neither of us have ready-made food delivered to our homes not would we consider that such food is a healthy option but it is certainly an expensive one.
And, as an aside, I can also assure that my BiL and his family do an incredible amount of work to support the needy in their community.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Wednesday May 25 2022, @02:23AM
A favorite of American parents for decades. Somehow my suggestion that we mail it to them never got any traction.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday May 24 2022, @05:49PM
Cross contamination is a serious health threat though.... Just sayin.....
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 24 2022, @07:36PM
If I eat takeout pizza, I can actually feel my blood pressure get higher.
Takeout pizza is the saltiest thing on the planet. Outback Steakhouse is salty as hell too, and I don't eat there anymore, but I swear I could feel the blood pressure aftereffects.
The takeout pizza bloats my wife's hands from the salt. And no, I do not ask who wants pizza in my house. I fight it tooth and nail.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 24 2022, @10:24PM (1 child)
Except that it's not true, the recommendations are laughable. Sodium is usually not an issue and in most cases you can have tons of sodium without any significant health consequences. The issues crop up when you've got an otherwise terrible diet, are obese and aren't getting enough potassium to balance out the sodium. And, unless you've actually got hypertension, there's no reason to worry about sodium intake.
(Score: 3, Touché) by sjames on Wednesday May 25 2022, @02:27AM
Until one day you develop hypertension and it shoots rapidly to north of 200 over OMG and you go to the ER.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by sjames on Wednesday May 25 2022, @02:19AM (5 children)
Not to mention the likelihood of underpaid teens washing their hands or the cooking surfaces thoroughly.
(Score: 2, Disagree) by HammeredGlass on Wednesday May 25 2022, @09:19PM (4 children)
"underpaid"
Get back to work and earn what you said you'd work for to begin with!
(Score: 2, Insightful) by therainingmonkey on Thursday May 26 2022, @01:50PM (3 children)
Pay minimum wage, get minimum effiort
(Score: 1, Troll) by HammeredGlass on Thursday May 26 2022, @02:22PM (2 children)
And this is how wage slaves stay locked in an eternal cycle of entitled stupidity.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by sjames on Friday May 27 2022, @12:00AM (1 child)
No amount of diligence will get a minimum wage employer to pay a fair wage. The only way up is out.
(Score: 2) by HammeredGlass on Friday May 27 2022, @03:26PM
No amount of responsibility, accountability, or agency will be used by a wage slave to live within their means and not blame others for their predicament.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Tuesday May 24 2022, @05:00PM
This is what drives me nuts about canned soups, and specifically chili. I don't know if I've *ever* found chili (or take-out, even) that doesn't have at least 75% of your daily sodium intake in it. God damn!
I want to taste the chili seasoning, not just the salt.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 24 2022, @05:37AM (22 children)
High salt intake is only a problem for people with a heart condition. On the other hand, low salt intake can kill anyone.
(Score: 5, Informative) by janrinok on Tuesday May 24 2022, @06:24AM (8 children)
It is not quite as simple as that unfortunately. There is a direct connection between salt intake and blood pressure. So you are correct to say it affects people with heart conditions, but it is not limited to them. People who have had a stroke or simply have high blood pressure are usually advised to adopt a low salt diet.
Of course, you might say 'but I haven't got a heart condition'. If you spend your life with too high a blood pressure you may well be working towards one.
I know people who claim to be on a low salt diet simply because they no longer put the same amount of salt on to their food. They still eat snacks, junk food etc but seem to completely miss the fact that they have not significantly reduced their intake at all.
I would posit that the chance of reducing salt intake in the western world to a dangerous level is that it is not something one should be worrying about. Be aware of if, but adding salt to your food to 'protect' yourself from eating too little of it is not a sensible attitude, in my opinion.
But, at the end of the day, we each live our own life the way that we want to....
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 24 2022, @10:54AM (1 child)
Apologies but I live my own life all the time, not only at the end of the day.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 24 2022, @12:08PM
Are you sure? What about the third of the day when you are in a comatose state?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 24 2022, @02:16PM (3 children)
There are a number of recent (last 10 years or so) studies and meta-analyses that suggest that in most people there is not such a correlation between salt intake and blood pressure as previously believed.
I don't follow the science super closely so I don't have a favorite, but it matches my anecdotal observations of eatin' way too much salt and having on-the-lower-end-of-normal blood pressure, both for myself and a handful of peers.
And yeah, no one in modern America is in danger of not consuming enough salt.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 24 2022, @03:04PM (1 child)
I'm the other way. Noticed my blood pressure was too high (supermarket arm cuff machine, usually repeat 3 times). Stopped eating salty snacks (the rest of my diet is fairly low salt--there is no salt shaker on the table). A week later retested with 10 counts lower blood pressure.
I've repeated this cycle enough times to know that it's very consistent.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by HammeredGlass on Wednesday May 25 2022, @09:21PM
Repeating cuff measurements with too great a frequency will cause the arteries to spasm and give false reads.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 25 2022, @12:46AM
That shouldn't be surprising as sodium and potassium are important regulators of fluid retention. If you just look at sodium intake, you're not going to have any idea what's going on in the body. Sodium, potassium, the kidneys, a genetic predisposition to retain more or less and other factors are important and are not taken into consideration.
For most people, there's little reason to cut back on sodium unless there's specific issues for you personally that suggest making changes.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 24 2022, @08:00PM
It's more nuanced than that. About 10% of people have blood pressure strongly correlated with salt intake. Their reaction is strong enough that any statistical study finds that salt is bad for you. What is really happening is that for those 10% salt is much worse than they say, but for the other 90% it is no big deal, they just piss it out.
It's just that when you average it out, having 10% of your high-salt group dropping dead looks bad. You also get most of that 10% in the high BP / stroke / heart attack group, further skewing the apparent effectiveness of switching to a low salt diet.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 24 2022, @10:28PM
No there isn't and I wish people would stop saying that. There is no direct link between sodium and high blood pressure. The same goes for cholesterol intake, that is also not a direct link. Trying to keep sodium and cholesterol down without cause just causes health problems, in the case of cholesterol, it will reduce your risk of heart disease while increasing the risk of pretty much every other health condition you can have.
Anyways, sodium and potassium exist in the body in a balance, if you've got more sodium and you get more potassium, that will increase the amount of both you can have in the body without any issues. There is obviously a limit to that, but for most people, they'd be better off eating a potassium rich diet and not worrying about the sodium. And BTW, this isn't just my idea, some of the blood pressure medications on the market work specifically by increasing the amount of potassium retained in the system.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 24 2022, @12:12PM
Yep. I used to eat a very low sodium diet. After some Michiganders attempted to control my reproductive organs by blocking payments to my pharmacy, I had to switch to a med that requires I eat somewhere around 150% of my daily value. If I don't, I end up in the hospital with low blood sodium. Not that I'm #salty or anything....
For the sound of it though, I guess the Michiganders are out of gas on the side of the road. Sucks to be them.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Tuesday May 24 2022, @02:35PM (11 children)
It is practically impossible to reduce your salt intake to a dangerously low level while still eating food prepared in anything like a normal manner. You'd also have to switch to distilled water and experience sweat lodge like conditions multiple times a day.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 24 2022, @04:44PM (8 children)
Wrong.
Just do manual labour, outdoors, in summer, as part of your job.
Electrolytes are lifesavers, kids, and that includes sodium. Those white streaks on your clothes after ten hours with a shovel in the sun, are salt.
But thank you for contributing the cubicle and aircon view, your perspective is valued. Speak your truth!
(Score: 2) by sjames on Tuesday May 24 2022, @08:20PM (7 children)
As someone who has actually done that sort of work, NO. Most of the value of those electrolytes is in the pausing from work for a moment and consuming water. Lots and lots of water.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 24 2022, @09:19PM (4 children)
Right, right, right. So the cramps, the fainting, the dizziness, solved by water ...
... no, it's not. If you're not hydrating, that's one thing. If you're hydrating but it's not working, there's something else going on. This is why a gigantic drink on top of the gallon you've already sweated out makes no difference, but a salt pill does. Especially one that includes potassium and magnesium. One way to tell the difference: are you still sweating copiously? If you are sweating like a squeezed sponge, your body still has water to give. If you lie down in the shade, and drink water, and the symptoms do not change, then you do not have a heat or hydration problem.
And if you didn't know this, I have serious questions about how much actual hard outdoors labour you've done.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Wednesday May 25 2022, @02:38AM (3 children)
I spent plenty of time working under the hot Georgia sun. Never needed a salt tablet, just water. Never had cramping problems. Occasionally dizzyness but a moment's rest in the shade with water fixed that.
In the grand scheme of things, plenty of primitive humans worked under a hot sun nowhere near any significant salt deposits and somehow survived.
(Score: 2) by HammeredGlass on Wednesday May 25 2022, @09:25PM (2 children)
Could it simply be that your diet at the time provided the necessary levels of minerals your body required?
(Score: 2) by sjames on Wednesday May 25 2022, @11:54PM (1 child)
As does pretty much anyone's.
(Score: 2) by HammeredGlass on Thursday May 26 2022, @02:22PM
Indeed true for most.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 24 2022, @10:35PM (1 child)
That advice is potentially fatal. All you'll accomplish doing that is get water intoxication and that can be deadly. Water does not have any of the potassium or sodium that your body is sweating out and by drinking extra water, you're potentially also excreting more of it via urine as well. If you are in that kind of a position, salt and potassium tablets are your friend. If you're taking them in a reasonable ratio, you're not going to have to worry about your blood pressure increasing.
I personally, make my own sports drink by mixing 1 qt of water with 100mg of potassium and 1/8 teaspoon of salt. It ensures that I won't get water intoxication and I'll still have the raw materials to sweat.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Wednesday May 25 2022, @02:47AM
Water intoxication is very rare and the advice to take salt tablets is ancient and no longer given except to a small percentage of people with various medical conditions.
When I say lots of water, I do not mean cram it down until your stomach is distended. If you're actually working, you'll likely vomit if you over-do the water enough to be a problem. Of course, if you vomit a lot, you might actually develop a deficiency of sodium and potassium.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 24 2022, @10:32PM (1 child)
I managed to unpickle my brain to the point of being placed in a medically induced coma while they brought my electrolytes back up to where they should be. Getting low sodium levels is not anywhere near as hard as people think. Avoid eating the worst things like sodas, soy sauce and most processed foods and you're already most of the way there. Drink the recommended water during the summer and you'll likely manage it.
This whole myth of everybody consuming too much of X really needs to die as it's just not true. There are a bunch of people out there who don't have a particular taste for salt that are potentially susceptible. For those of us living in areas without AC and actually going outside, it's a lot easier to sweat/wash the sodium out of the body than you're suggesting. I was personally lucky enough to get medical attention before I had permanent brain damage, but a bit more time and I likely would have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 25 2022, @02:57AM
You got a medically induced coma? All I got was a saline drip for my week and a half sabbatical.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 24 2022, @10:56AM (1 child)
Using natural sources like Rose Salt from the Himalaias, is far better for your health.
Has about 80 minerals in balance.
Anyway, just a matter of time before the capitalists find a cancer causing replacement like they do with sugar.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 24 2022, @01:12PM
Ah yes, the eternal struggle to find a source of sodium chloride that isn't contaminated with microplastics.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 24 2022, @12:19PM
Some people eat so much salt they just about can't taste it anymore. It's like Mexicans with hot peppers (or better yet, Thais).
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 24 2022, @12:45PM
This is why all animals outside of a marine environment will eat salt when presented with it. We are no different. Sometimes I think restaurants are really just fancy fronts for a human salt lick.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by HiThere on Tuesday May 24 2022, @01:18PM (1 child)
I used to like a high salt diet, but my wife had a heart condition, so she wanted (and insisted upon) a REALLY low salt diet. I quickly got used to it, and now I never add salt to anything. I don't actually usually go out of my way to avoid it, but it's close to that.
The taste for salt is REALLY adaptable. You *do* need salt if you're working outside in a hot environment, but that's not true for most who will read this. For others the normal diet will supply more salt than you need. Canned foods tend to be really high in salt, and don't even think about pickles or corned beef.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by pdfernhout on Friday May 27 2022, @11:31AM
Indeed people can quickly adapt to low-salt diets. Congratulations on doing so! I've managed that a few times and then backslid and then accomplished it again.
Joel Fuhrman, M.D., Douglas Lisle, Ph.D., and Alan Goldhamer , D.C. have been saying for decades that people can retrain their taste buds in weeks -- and not just about salt:
https://web.archive.org/web/20150430050047/http://drfuhrman.com/library/article16.aspx [archive.org]
"Scientific evidence suggests that the re-sensitization of taste nerves takes between 30 and 90 days of consistent exposure to less stimulating foods. This means that for several weeks, most people attempting this change will experience a reduction in eating pleasure. This is why modern foods present such a devastating trap—as most of our citizens are, in effect, “addicted” to artificially high levels of food stimulation! The 30-to-90-day process of taste re-calibration requires more motivation—and more self-discipline—than most people are ever willing to muster.
Tragically, most people are totally unaware that they are only a few weeks of discipline away from being able to comfortably maintain healthful dietary habits—and to keep away from the products that can result in the destruction of their health. Instead, most people think that if they were to eat more healthfully, they would be condemned to a life of greatly reduced gustatory pleasure—thinking that the process of Phase IV will last forever. In our new book, The Pleasure Trap, we explain this extraordinarily deceptive and problematic situation – and how to master this hidden force that undermines health and happiness."
Water-only fasting can reduce that retraining time to a week or so. That is probably part of why every major religion has a fasting component to "reset" from dietary excess.
One rule of thumb from Fuhrman is to avoid foods that have more milligrams of salt than calories (since ideal numbers of both sodium and calories are typically in the 2000 range or lower).
All easier said then done though. A big problem is eating out or if other people in your home eat differently. Kudos to you for not sabotaging your wife's health by still insisting on having lots of salty foods in the house or cooking them or bringing home fast food. That is a common issue when one person in a family tries to eat healthier, which can feel threatening to people essentially parasitized by the junk food industry. Turning off the TV helps too -- and using an internet ad blocker -- as there are so many food ads for unhealthy food.
Some other encouragement:
"Logical Miracles: Second Edition", edited by Dor Mullen
https://www.amazon.com/Logical-Miracles-Second-edited-Mullen/dp/1975891430/ [amazon.com]
Some places are easier to eat healthier and live healthier like Blue Zones helps with:
https://www.bluezones.com/blue-zones-results-albert-lea-mn/ [bluezones.com]
"When Blue Zones and Blue Zones Project began working with Albert Lea in 2009 to transform its policies, places, and people, the focus was on helping people move naturally, eat wisely, connect, and have the right outlook—all of which can lead to living longer, better. To make transformation a reality, city leaders and the Blue Zones Project identified key opportunities for impact and sought pledges from businesses and residents."
Vegetable Juice fasts are another option too:
https://www.rebootwithjoe.com/ [rebootwithjoe.com]
"As a celebrated health and wellness leader, Joe Cross inspires others to get healthy and lose weight through juicing and eating more plants and vegetables. Joe transformed from being obese and sick with a crippling autoimmune disease to losing weight and feeling his best during a 60-day juice fast, which he named a “Reboot.”"
As are "intermittent" fasts -- which can range from restricting your eating window to eight hours or less per day (perhaps skipping either breakfast or dinner) to things like eating every other day. or only three or four days a week.
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/intermittent-fasting-what-is-it-and-how-does-it-work [hopkinsmedicine.org]
"Johns Hopkins neuroscientist Mark Mattson, has studied intermittent fasting for 25 years. He says that our bodies have evolved to be able to go without food for many hours, or even several days or longer. In prehistoric times, before humans learned to farm, they were hunters and gatherers who evolved to survive — and thrive — for long periods without eating. They had to: It took a lot of time and energy to hunt game and gather nuts and berries. Even 50 years ago, it was easier to maintain a healthy weight. Johns Hopkins dietitian Christie Williams, M.S., R.D.N., explains: “There were no computers, and TV shows turned off at 11 p.m.; people stopped eating because they went to bed. Portions were much smaller. More people worked and played outside and, in general, got more exercise.” Nowadays, TV, the internet and other entertainment are available 24/7. We stay awake for longer hours to catch our favorite shows, play games and chat online. We’re sitting and snacking all day — and most of the night.”"
A key point about intermittent fasting is it gives the body's cells time to re-calibrate their insulin sensitivity. That improves health in general and builds on itself, making it easier to fast more often and for longer times. Even just avoiding "snacks" after dinner can make a huge difference.
With water-only or day-on-day-off fasting, it can take a while to move through the initial detoxification stage which can be unpleasant with headaches or such as your body starts processing and eliminating a backload of toxins.
All that said, I tend to agree with comments here that salt is a much bigger issue for some few people than most people. I am not sure if that is due to genetics, microbiota, other things they are eating or not eating (like not getting enough potassium), or things like exercise/sweating (or lack thereof) -- or maybe some various mix of all of the above.
Sugar and refined grains in processed food are probably a bigger issue than salt for most people. And they tend to go together, where processed foods add a lot of salt and sugar or specific types of unhealthy seed-oil-based fats (even if healthy fats may in general be good for you). Without adding all that, many processed foods might taste like cardboard.
A Furhman book maybe of interest about heart conditions which discusses the science of how various processed foods and too many animal products clog up arteries (and then how salt then makes all that worse for some people) and how to reverse that by dietary changes:
"The End of Heart Disease: The Eat to Live Plan to Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease (Eat for Life)"
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062249363/ [amazon.com]
I wish I had known all that twenty years ago before my father and then a sister died of heart disease about a year apart.
The biggest challenge of the 21st century: the irony of technologies of abundance used by scarcity-minded people.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 24 2022, @02:33PM (3 children)
Follow the science. Measure your blood pressure - baseline and after salty foods. If you have a problem with salt then sure reduce it. If you're not particularly salt sensitive ( https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/salt-sensitivity-sorting-out-the-science [harvard.edu] ) then don't worry too much about salt intake (unless you go crazy).
There isn't that much science backing the WHO's low daily salt intake recommendations FOR EVERYONE. In fact there's science indicating that too low salt intake can be harmful: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/aug/09/salt-not-as-damaging-to-health-as-previously-thought-says-study [theguardian.com]
The last I checked the Hong Kong people, Japanese[1], Swiss, Singaporeans and Italians live pretty long on fairly high sodium diets.
https://www.worldometers.info/demographics/life-expectancy/ [worldometers.info]
https://www.cfs.gov.hk/english/programme/programme_rdss/FAQ_Sodium_Public.html [cfs.gov.hk]
https://www.businessinsider.com/people-in-japan-eat-more-salt-than-in-the-us-but-most-people-eat-too-much-in-both-countries-2015-7 [businessinsider.com]
https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/2-teaspoons-a-day_swiss-still-eat-too-much-salt/41771324 [swissinfo.ch]
https://www.healthhub.sg/live-healthy/15/dietary_guidelines_adults [healthhub.sg]
https://www.cuore.iss.it/eng/prevention/minisal-project [cuore.iss.it]
[1] The Okinawans, a group who are known for longevity, also have high salt diets: https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/okinawa-diet [healthline.com]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okinawa_diet [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 5, Funny) by ElizabethGreene on Tuesday May 24 2022, @02:45PM (1 child)
I'm sorry AC, you're behind the times. No AC, Experimentation and conclusions based on evidence is the old way to do science. The new way is just to read headlines and then argue a position in ignorance based on your political position.
Sorry no-one told you.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday May 24 2022, @05:53PM
In this case a headline that makes a very bold claim based on a single outlier study....
So who was doing what again?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 25 2022, @03:03AM
Very high sodium diet here. Garlic keeps my blood pressure under control. My blood pressure is now lower than it's ever been, even before I was stuck with a high sodium diet. A clove a day keeps stroke away.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by VanessaE on Tuesday May 24 2022, @03:00PM (4 children)
Is this actually from the well-no-shit-sherlock dept.?
Ignoring the tissues that just give them structure, aren't taste buds more or less just a type of nerve ending with special chemical receptors?
If they are, then by definition, shouldn't they "auto-range" to fit whatever input they're routinely subjected to, just like any other sensory nerve? Within reasonable limits, of course.
Plus, isn't it already a well-established fact that most people will get used to a given diet if they manage to stick with it long enough? Of course, I mean one's general selection of foods, not fads or weight-loss attempts. To use myself as an example, I gave up sugary sodas years ago, and last time I tasted one (restaurant gave me the wrong product), I found it borderline disgusting compared to its sugar-free counterpart.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday May 24 2022, @05:56PM (3 children)
Can you "blow out" your tastebuds like you can your ears?
Seems like a pretty interesting question to get a definitive answer for but hey...I just like science!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 24 2022, @06:51PM
No. Ear hair cells* are not naturally replaced, at least not in large quantities. Taste buds get replaced constantly.
* not actually hair
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 24 2022, @07:28PM (1 child)
From personal experience with salt and hot peppers, I can attest that your sensitivity to those things will return quickly if you cut back. On the flip side, your tastebuds will become desensitized just as easily should you over-consume over time. You can repeat this cycle indefinitely.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 24 2022, @10:40PM
Same goes for sugar, if you manage to actually cut back on sugar you'll have an easier time avoiding it. But, the moment that you start eating it again, it will be a very strong drive.
I'm not sure why that's the case with salt and sugar, but with peppers the chemical compound that is involved in relaying the sensation to the brain can and does run out, so if you're eating peppers and tolerating them in other areas, you'll lose the sense of how spicy they are fairly quickly. And it won't return until you cut back on the pepper intake,
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 24 2022, @06:49PM
As the ACs up thread pointed out, salt is only really a problem if you already have heart problems, and sometimes not even then. But I still often get the low sodium version of things because I just don't need that much saltiness. Except on corn chips, but I only eat those occasionally.
While I don't have any heart problems and don't really worry about salt, I have occasionally needed to lose weight and cut out sugar.
After six months or so of low sugar/calorie everything (and no artificial sweeteners either), just about everything processed tasted incredibly sweet. Even things like fast food hamburger buns were too sweet.
After a week or two I re-adjusted and regular food tasted normal again.