Salt Like Behavior

We have no scientific evidence to support our suggestions which we'll share with you later. Ever since we were young our elders have encouraged use to first taste our food before adding salt. We knew they were trying to reduce our salt and sugar intake even as children so we automatically went into repair mode because our food was communally prepared. What our high blood pressure having big cousins ate wasn't going to be satisfying to us. Out came the salt/sugar adding arm before taking the first bite.

Exactly what the effect are and what they could provide us was not known or rather scientifically verified until now. Not only what we could do but how much we should do and what were its effect on us physically and financially. This information is too hard to ignore. We'll put our suggestions in "couch potato" form and you can take it as you will. From the University of California - San Francisco we learned:

"Even a small dietary reduction in salt could mean fewer heart attacks, strokes and deaths - Reducing salt in the American diet by as little as one-half teaspoon (or three grams) per day could prevent nearly 100,000 heart attacks and 92,000 deaths each year, according to a new study. Such benefits are on par with the benefits from reductions in smoking and could save the United States about $24 billion in healthcare costs, the researchers add." (USCF)

The Stanford University Medical Center and Columbia University Medical Center helped developed the hows, whats and the whys:

"...were derived from the Coronary Heart Disease Policy Model, found that reducing dietary salt by three grams per day (about 1200 mg of sodium or about ½ teaspoon) would result in 11 percent fewer cases of new heart disease, 13 percent fewer heart attacks, 8 percent fewer strokes, and 4 percent fewer deaths. For African Americans, who researchers believe are more likely to have high blood pressure and may be more sensitive to salt, this degree of salt reduction could reduce new cases of heart disease by 16 percent and heart attacks by 19 percent.

“Reducing dietary salt is one of those rare interventions that has a huge health benefit and actually saves large amounts of money. At a time when so much public debate has focused on the costs of health care for the sick, here is a simple remedy, already proven to be feasible in other countries,” said Lee Goldman, MD, MPH, senior author, executive vice president for health and biomedical sciences and dean of the faculties of health sciences and medicine at Columbia University." (UCSF)

Our family tried adding rice to the salt shaker which just made us shake harder but what they didn't try was to add other seasoning to our shaker. When they hid the shaker we'd go to the cabinet and shake right from box. When we "box shake" we always added to much salt. What didn't work for us may work for you, if not try this. Here is a suggestion made by the American Heart Association:

There is a rich world of creative and flavorful alternatives to salt. Get started with this guide to spices, herbs and flavorings and the food items with which they are a particularly good flavor match. Then get creative and experiment! - American Heart Association (AHA)

We won't know how successful this bait and switch will be until we put it into action but if we start now we might be able to create an environment where alternative flavors might interests us and our families. Pearlie Mae felt that she didn't have to change because she was at an age where it didn't really matter. It mattered to us whether she lived or died. Since we were responsible for the foods Pearlie Mae ate and were prepared for her we didn't and should have to make major changes.

Public health interventions are often controversial. There is a common misperception that only certain people should reduce their salt intake and that for the vast majority of the population salt reduction is unnecessary. The opposite is true. Elevated blood pressure is a huge public health problem. Approximately one third of adults have hypertension, and another third have prehypertension. For adults who reach the age of 50 years, the lifetime risk that hypertension will develop is 90%. Furthermore, the benefits of salt reduction probably extend to children and young adults. Salt reduction in children has been shown to lower blood pressure, and blood pressure is directly associated with the earliest stages of atherosclerotic disease, even at young ages. (New England Journal of Medicine)

Changes only have to ten (10) to twenty (20) percent in lifestyle. There is hope through chemistry. Science is offering us hope for some additional alternatives.

Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator Charles S. Zuker and his colleagues have pinpointed the receptor molecules in the tongue that tell the brain whether a substance is sweet, bitter, sour, or savory (the taste also known as umami)." (HHMI)

We think flavorful alternatives are the solution - partially. Rice to the salt wasn't the solution for us but white pepper or some other white seasoning of other varying flavors might be the solution. For us we had to see the crystals on top of our food before we'd stop shaking. Whether or not that'll work for you we don't know. It's not scientific, we know and we disclaim our suggestions with that proviso. All you have to have is a quarter teaspoon worth of success.

Salted to Death...

...but at least you didn't get cancer when you died!

The men among us here are big salt users. Calls us "salters" because we reach for the shaker before our lips ever touch the food. There is not a woman among us that doesn't warn us against the dangers of our salty ways. We get the same grief when we sweeten our drinks. The warnings always include the ominous you're going to get cancer (or diabetes as the case may be) and die! Maybe you've heard it or maybe you're a carrier of "the ominous warnings of death!" (TOWOD)

Now comes The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (AJCN) and the Japan Public Health Center–based Prospective Study which says we (the men) were right and they (the women) were wrong. Well kind of wrong.

"Sodium intake as a whole salt equivalent may not increase the risk of cancer but may increase that of cardiovascular disease (CVD). In contrast, salted food intake may increase the risk of cancer. [Their] findings support the notion that sodium and salted foods have differential influences on the development of cancer and CVD." (AJCN)

So to all the other Tarzans out there - "Salters" not dying but greasy pre-salted bad! That includes all the processed meats and salty processed foods which can still kill you. Science keeps verifying it this bit of news over and over again. In this case science, since 1995 and eliminating family history for over ten (10) years and over seventy-seven thousand (77,500 men and women aged 45–74 y. During up to 598,763 person-years of follow-up until the end of 2004, 4476 cases of cancer and 2066 cases of CVD were identified.) individuals helped confirm the results.

It's not direct research it's what's called "a meta-analysis" of twenty-one (21) studies but the bottom line is (according to these  reviewers) "there is no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of CHD or CVD." (AJCN) That's good enough for us and we'll hang on to every thread of countermanding evidence.

We don't need new lab research to show us the benefits of fruits and vegetables. We need research that emphasizes real-world solutions. - Janet King, PhD

Here Here Dr. King! We giveth the bad news and we taketh away the bad news - there is some new cancer hope from some fairly unconventional sources.

Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI) scientist Julie Saba, MD, PhD, and her colleagues have just published a groundbreaking study in Cancer Research that identifies a new class of therapeutic agents that could hold the key to the prevention and treatment of colon cancer. Sphingadienes (SDs) are sphingolipid metabolites found naturally in soy that Dr. Saba’s group has found to be protective against colon cancer. (CHORI)

Soy and fruit flies, all things we turn our noses up from the very mention or even seeing. Now showing us the way that going to get cancers and kill it!

"Although cell death does not sound like a good thing and can indeed contribute to pathology, it is also part of the normal process the body uses to remove unhealthy or mutant cells, providing what Dr. Saba refers to as a "cancer surveillance" function. Preventative colon cancer strategies often focus on the same process – ways to get rid of those cells that might be damaged – and thus more prone to turning into cancer – as quickly as possible, which was why Dr. Saba’s team was particularly interested in SDs." (CHORI)

Now we've got some additional ammunition in our growing arsenal to fight the "big C" (cancer) and we won't have to make major life changes to take advantage of its benefits. That's what we call a good day and a great end to a great week.

More Pepa Less Salt

The year was 1986 and our god brother was "knocked out" by two female rappers who wanted to "talk about sex, baby!" They were the multi-hued Salt & Pepa whose recent revival on VH1 and subsequent re-split has resulted in a separate show for the very bawdy Pepa.


What's this got to do with the recent news about the research on salt in our diets? We thought it timely. We've always known that too much salt has been harmful to us resulting in or contributing to hypertension, heart attacks and possibility leading to death. The life savings, to just our community would result in 2006, of 50,000* individuals.

We aren't our god brother and aren't a big Pepa fan. We like Salt. Pepa was too crude for our taste. If we keep the two a duo instead of a single act we'd, and in our opinion so would the women, be better off.

“Reducing dietary salt is one of those rare interventions that has a huge health benefit and actually saves large amounts of money. At a time when so much public debate has focused on the costs of health care for the sick, here is a simple remedy, already proven to be feasible in other countries,” said Lee Goldman, MD, MPH, senior author, executive vice president for health and biomedical sciences and dean of the faculties of health sciences and medicine at Columbia University. The American Heart Association (AHA) reports that salt consumption among Americans has risen by 50 percent and blood pressure has risen by nearly the same amount since the 1970s - despite evidence linking salt intake to high blood pressure and heart disease." (University of California San Francisco UCSF)

If we do an equal share of seasoning say instead of three shakes of the salt shaker do one and half and one and half of pepper. Or if that's not possible because for us adding salt is more of an automatic response regardless of how the food is prepared. We don't even taste the food before grabbing the salt. What we learn from eating out with friend, or at least what the men learn, is that your hostess is insulted by an automatic salt reach. Try some spices if pepper is your "salt." For some of us its spicy hot and for others its spicy sweet.

Now if only VH1 learns the same lesson cause we really don't want to talk about Pep! We will use her to emphasize a point that will help us all live longer use a celebrity to help us be a better we.

Reducing the salt and not eliminating salt from our diet is a couching activity we can take. It's not a pill but since it took the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) two (2) months to decide that Meridia can kills us. So waiting for a pill we can take might not be the scientific solution. Salt reductions might just be the science we need. It doesn't take making drastic changes that can't be maintained. It can only help. We can start this new year, new decade with a reasonable dedication we can sustain and so can you!