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....
There was a great panel talk by @poconnor about living with PKU and sapropterin.
One of the questions was "are you doing well with phe levels", and one of the points was that how life changes do have a severe impact on phe levels.
As someone who moved house quite recently AND had a job change, I am proof that big life changes as well as changes to routine absolutely do mess up phe levels.
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
In this review of nearly 50 studies, researchers found that vegetarian diets were associated with lower risk of heart disease and cancer, better lipid profiles and improved blood sugar control.
Abstract: The transition from hunting-gathering to agriculture stands as one of the most important dietary revolutions in human history. Yet, due to a scarcity of well-preserved human remains from Pleistocene sites, little is known about the dietary practices of pre-agricultural human groups. Here we present the isotopic...
We don’t need the sweet stuff in our diet, sugar isn’t a food, it isn’t even a nutrient & artificial sweeteners are just that - artificial. We don’t need it - but people eat & drink so much of it that they crave it, they’re addicted, just like a drug. The only people that benefit are those that make it all, not the consumer.
Just Eat Real Food! You can get all the sweetness the body needs from real food. Break the addiction! #Food#Diet#ToxicSugar#ToxicSweeteners
Artificial sweetener could harm your gut and its microbes
Hey, here's something fishy. I'd like to get more fish into my diet. Tilapia is out so what else is out there? How do I cook it? Cod had worms so I def want something with those. I love salmon but I want to try other types. Tips would be very much appreciated. Thanks!
With the effectiveness of GLP-1 medications finally treating the underlying disorder (a GLP disregulation) bariatric surgery (like gastro bypass) looks like the dark ages. Might as well be drilling holes in their head.
I kinda feel bad for the people who were convinced to get it, having a perminantly deformed and broken digestive system and not fixing the underlying hunger issues...
What the hell is going on.... I lost 1.5 lbs (0.7 kg) in literally 10 hours where all I did was sit at my desk all day. I wasnt hot or sweaty, I drank water, I even had a pretty heavy breakfast (eggs cheese spinach, heavily buttered English muffin, and two huge pieces of greasy scrapple).. on top of that i had at least 2 liters of water today and no activity..... how did I loose that much weight in 10 hours.
These drugs they got me on is hitting on another level.
Hit a new low weight on my diet crossing another double digit mark. Its only a few fractions of a pound below my last low, but still nice to see the double digits roll down.
I cant help but feel my progress is a bit too slow though. Ive lost about 16 lbs in 2 months and i feel the pacing could be much greater.
In the past whenever I heard my mom, or anyone, say "ohhhh that meal was so big, ill be full all day, maybe into tomorrow"... I always rolled my eyes and just thought "You enjoy sleeping in that bed of lies".... But now that im on #Ozempic / #Semiglutide I can relate. I woke up today and had a huge hoagie for breakfast. But Now, 12 hours later, I dont even feel hungry. Hell some of it is still in my stomach i think (i taste it on my burps)... soooo weird.
The nice thing is i can eat a cheat meal now and it fills me for so long it isnt even really a cheat meal at all. Like yea it was too many calories for one meal, but over a whole day it was still on the low side.
Isotopic evidence of high reliance on plant food among Later Stone Age hunter-gatherers at Taforalt, Morocco - Nature Ecology & Evolution [Open Access] (doi.org)
Abstract: The transition from hunting-gathering to agriculture stands as one of the most important dietary revolutions in human history. Yet, due to a scarcity of well-preserved human remains from Pleistocene sites, little is known about the dietary practices of pre-agricultural human groups. Here we present the isotopic...