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Low-Salt Diet - with Risks and Side-Effects

In the daily press we are often reading the recommendation to eat less salt. Scientific research, however, shows that changing to a low-salt diet is not at all always healthy, but can affect metabolism in unfavourable and serious ways. Furthermore, scientists are registering an increased death rate of persons with a salt intake below average.

US-American scientists wanted to know for sure and have researched the eating habits of more than 7,000 volunteers for 13 years to find out more about the correlation between salt (NaCl) intake and health. This so-called NHANES II study (Second National Health And Nutrition Examination Survey) distinguished two groups of test persons: participants taking in more than six grammes of salt with their daily food, and participants eating less than six grammes of NaCl in average per day.

It turned out quite clearly: The group taking in more than six grammes of salt every day showed less cases of death by cardiovascular complications than the group following the low-salt diet. Important to note: The results were the same in all age and weight groups. Neither did it matter how healthy the test persons were eating or living otherwise. The findings also proved to be not related to the blood pressure and cholesterol levels of the test person and to his or her doing any sports or not.

Similar conclusions were drawn by scientists of the US-American Salt Institute in 2007. On the basis of a global patient database (Global Cardiovascular Infobase, Canada) they showed that over the past 30 years the number of deaths caused by cardiovascular diseases has decreased more in countries with increasing salt intake (e.g. in USA, England, Sweden) than in countries with decreasing salt intake. Thus, they defeated the theory of Finnish scientists that a reduced salt intake in their country had caused the decrease of certain cardiovascular diseases.

Therefore, it is doubtful if a low-salt diet is indeed healthy - or, rather, possibly involves considerable risks and side-effects, particularly with regard to cardiovascular health. It is a matter of fact that not all metabolic effects are favourable: e.g. blood lipids are increasing with a low-salt diet, as has been proven by a large-scale survey conducted for the so-called Cochrane Collaboration, an international researchers' network. The medics discovered that with a clear restriction of salt intake the blood cholesterol levels increased by more than ten milligrammes per decilitre. At the same time, the LDL cholesterol, which is said to be responsible for the development of arteriosclerotic diseases, went up by more than six milligrammes per decilitre.

So, one had better be careful with general nutrition recommendations such as "Keep a low-salt diet!" Not only the potential benefits of following such recommendations should be valued, but also the risks - which are, as current scientific research shows, not insignificant.