Reducing salt 'would cut cancer'

[xchrom]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18923994


Cutting back on salty foods such as bacon, bread and breakfast cereals may reduce people's risk of developing stomach cancer, according to the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF).

It wants people to eat less salt and for the content of food to be labelled more clearly.

In the UK, the WCRF said one-in-seven stomach cancers would be prevented if people kept to daily guidelines.

Cancer Research UK said this figure could be even higher.

[MannyGoldstein]

1. Except that there's no evidence that reducing salt increases lifespan

e.g., http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-05/reducing-salt-in-diet-fails-to-lower-death-rate-in-trials-researchers-say.html

In fact, the opposite is more likely to be true: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/05/04/135983232/study-muddies-water-on-health-effects-of-salt

[xchrom]

2. i was aware of all that -- and the thing that surprised me -- i guess

was the association of salt and stomach cancers -- now bacon or even grilled food i was aware of that.

[Jackpine Radical]

3. Not to mention heart disease.

Finland now requires that table salt be cut with potassium chloride in order to reduce the total (sodium) salt intake, and has seen a dramatic drop in heart disease.

For the past couple of months I've been paying much more attention to my salt intake, and was initially surprised to discover how much salt there is in just about everything. Also, I noticed that the sodium RDA has been raised by about 25% recently--a cave-in to food industry pressure? A large slice of pizza with sausage or pepperoni can easily contain 3500 mg Na & thereby exceed even the new, inflated Na RDA by 50% all by itself.

I try to stay below 1000 mg Na per day, but if I eat out at all, it's hard to stay under 1500. It makes a big differenc in my blood pressure, for one thing.

And, you know when you go on a restricted-calorie diet, how you lose water weight for the first few day & get that dramatic weight drop, far in excess of your fat loss? Well, that's due to the salt restriction.

[Kalidurga]

4. I look at the list of foods and see another common factor.

All the foods on the list are highly processed. I think that is more likely the link to cancer than sodium.