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Dr. Mercola
November 13 2007
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Should Salt No Longer Be Generally Recognized as Safe?

Because of its negative health impacts, salt should no longer be considered safe, and it’s generally recognized as safe (GRAS) status should be revoked, according to a petition by advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) filed with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The FDA has scheduled a hearing in response, where they will discuss revising their salt regulations, along with the implications of doing so.

In its petition, CSPI has recommended that:

  • Limits be put on the amount of salt in processed foods

  • Health messages related to salt be limited

  • Salt be treated as a food additive, not GRAS
Eating too much sodium has been linked to high blood pressure and heart disease. More than three-quarters of the salt in the average American diet comes from processed foods.

CSPI has petitioned the FDA about its salt regulations in the past, as well. In 1978 they asked for limits for sodium in processed foods, and in 1981 they suggested adding warning labels on packages of salt that weighed more than half an ounce. Both petitions were denied.

At the FDA’s hearing, scheduled for November 29, 2007, policies regarding salt and sodium will be discussed, and comments on current and potential future approaches will be taken.

Sources:



Dr. MercolaDr. Mercola's Comments:
Restricting salt in your diet is one of conventional nutrition’s most well-known mantras. Salt, they say, will contribute to high blood pressure and increase your risk of heart disease.

While this may be true for certain salt-sensitive people, it doesn’t apply to most of you in the general population. No study on the general population has ever found an association between low-sodium diets and a reduced risk of heart disease or other diseases.

An eight-year study of people with high blood pressure living in New York, however, found that those on low-salt diets had more than four times as many heart attacks as those with normal sodium intake.

Why would this be? Because salt is essential for life -- you cannot live without it.

The problem with salt intake here in the United States has to do with the fact that more than 75 percent of it in the average American’s diet comes from processed foods, like fast food, packaged snacks, convenience foods, and restaurant meals.

And the salt that is used in processed foods is also the highly processed variety -- NOT the natural salt your body needs to function.

So the issue may be very similar to the vilification of saturated fat, which is typically consumed in many fast foods that are accompanied by large levels of trans fats.

The studies being used to support the reduction of salt have not carefully controlled for the confounding variable of the processed foods that they are typically consumed in.

The Difference Between Table Salt and Natural Salt

Having expressed my concerns for the findings of these recommendations I want to make it perfectly clear that I am not a fan of nearly all commercial processed salt. I personally seek to avoid using all processed foods whenever possible and rarely consume regular table salt.

You may not realize that not all salt is created equal. There is actually a major difference between the standard, refined table and cooking salt most of you are accustomed to using, and natural health-promoting salt.

Your table salt is actually 97.5 percent sodium chloride and 2.5 percent chemicals such as moisture absorbents and iodine. This salt is dried at an excessively high temperature -- over 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit -- that actually negatively alters the natural ionic physical structure of the salt.

Moreover, when your body attempts to eliminate the excess processed salt, water molecules must surround the sodium chloride to break it up into sodium and chloride ions in order to help your body neutralize these ions. To accomplish this, water is taken from your cells, which tends to compromise the fluid balance in your cells.

You may be surprised to learn that for every gram of sodium chloride that your body cannot get rid of, your body uses 23 times the amount of water to neutralize the salt. Eating common table salt therefore causes excess fluid in your body tissue, which can contribute to:
  • Unsightly cellulite
  • Rheumatism, arthritis, and gout
  • Kidney and gall bladder stones
And most of you do eat way too much of this salt (90 percent of the money most Americans spend on food is for processed foods, and every one of these foods is loaded with unnatural salt).

The average American eats 4,000 to 6,000 mg of sodium chloride each day (and some of you even eat up to 10,000 mg a day). So this is really a pervasive issue.

So Should Salt be GRAS?

Salt is really one of the lesser evils out there, and the FDA would be much better served to remove MSG, high-fructose corn syrup, and many other artificial additives from foods before they focus on salt.

And even if the FDA lowers the salt content in processed foods, they will still not be fit for consumption, as far as I’m concerned. And food processors will not simply remove salt without replacing it with something, and that “something” could very well be worse for you than the salt.

So please understand, it is my strong recommendation to avoid loading up on the salt in processed foods.

I do think it’s perfectly fine, and even beneficial, to use a pure, natural salt, such as Celtic or Himalayan salt, to add flavor to your food. Natural salt is dried naturally, not chemically processed, and actually contains minerals that your body needs. Personally, I -- and most of my patients -- far prefer the pink Himalayan salt, but either one will do as they are unprocessed salts and are not associated with many of the problems of commercial salts.

If you are following the advice in Take Control of Your Health and have cut processed foods from your diet, then you will really have a hard time overdosing on salt, because all you’ll be consuming is what you personally add to your meals.

If you are curious to know whether you’re eating the right amount of salt for your body, a fasting chemistry profile that shows your serum sodium level can tell you. Your sodium level should be 139, with an ideal range of 136 to 142.

If it is much lower, you probably need to eat more salt; if it is higher, you probably should restrict your salt intake.
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Community Comments ( 54 )
 Comment on this Article
  
  
foxtroter
 [ Joined on 09/06 ] [ Posted on October 25, 2007 ]
15 Points        
   
 
Savvy User
Plain processed /refined sodium chloride regulations please.  Do not equate sea salt or Himalayan salt (ancient sea salt) with ordinary table salt. 
 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
Russ Bianchi
 		[ Joined on 09/06 ]  [ Posted on October 26, 2007]
11 Points        
   
Savvy User
  Mercola
Indeed, real nutrient nature made mineral salts from the sea or rock are much better for health!
Mercola
  
Aaltrude
 		[ Joined on 04/07 ]  [ Posted on October 26, 2007]
2 Points        
   
Savvy User
  Mercola
Indeed Russ. We also use rock salt licks for our farm animals.
Mercola
  
BeyondOrganic
 		[ Joined on 06/06 ]  [ Posted on October 28, 2007]
5 Points        
   
Savvy User
  Mercola
We only buy Himalayan salt here!  I have the big rock salt also from them that needs to soak in a glass jar. 
  
  
mmc88121
 [ Joined on 11/06 ] [ Posted on October 25, 2007 ]
14 Points        
   
 
Moderator User
And what would the manufacturers use in place of table salt?  Probably something even more deadly.  If you do most of your own cooking you have already cut down on your sodium intake.  Now I just need to learn to do my own canning.

Mary
 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
Russ Bianchi
 		[ Joined on 09/06 ]  [ Posted on October 26, 2007]
1 Points        
   
Savvy User
  Mercola
After air and water, SALT is the next least costly ingredient in the food or beverage chain, hence it's over use.

The suggestion that more MSG and HFCS are probable alternatives is indeed likely based on cost, both WORSE health options by far.
Mercola
  
EQ
 		[ Joined on 03/07 ]  [ Posted on October 26, 2007]
8 Points        
   
Savvy User
  Mercola
Maybe Monsanto has a salt replacement product all ready to go.  Just like aspartame.
Mercola
  
Pat Ormsby
 		[ Joined on 06/06 ]  [ Posted on November 13, 2007]
       
   
Savvy User
  Mercola

I'm shocked to hear of an attack on yet another natural nutrient.  The paradigm of orthodox science (defined for us by those profiting from  it) being superior to nature and centuries of human experience and wisdom is paving the way to colossal ill health.  Have fun with the canning!  I used to can a lot of things and still do a little, but am investigating fresh foods at different seasons throughout the year.  The original inhabitants of Japan took to the mountains in fall and winter for wild game and they dug wild tubers and utilized tree nuts.  In our field, spinach survives sub-freezing temperatures all winter.  In fact, I've noticed that all of the vegetables recommended for protein types fare best in cool or cold weather.  Where you are at, it may be too cold to grow anything in mid-winter.  Perhaps in a greenhouse?
  
  
Swami Barmi
 [ Joined on 10/06 ] [ Posted on October 25, 2007 ]
12 Points        
   
 
Savvy User
Get ready for a rapid increase in the amounts of MSG and HFCS.
 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
Aaltrude
 		[ Joined on 04/07 ]  [ Posted on October 26, 2007]
4 Points        
   
Savvy User
  Mercola
Even more reason to shop around the outside of the supermarket and avoid the aisles.
Mercola
  
ladygaura
 		[ Joined on 11/07 ]  [ Posted on November 13, 2007]
2 Points        
   
Novice User
  Mercola

I worry too. My husband is especially sensitive to MSG in all its insidious forms and I just know that a lot of manufacturers are going to put that in if they can't use salt. There is even an organic "yeast extract" out there now so not even organic foods will be safe.

I tried using the Utah mineral salt but had trouble with grittiness, made the food difficult to eat. Is the Himilayan salt gritty too, or is it different?
  
  
"David"
 [ Joined on 08/06 ] [ Posted on October 25, 2007 ]
5 Points        
   
 
Savvy User
This would be a good idea to restrict and reclassify, salt.
Too much undoubtedly interferes with the delicate blood salt levels and thence blood pressure and other health problems.
    However, unless the food industry has a cheaper flavour enhancer, this is unlikely to make headway.Me?.. cynical?
 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
Russ Bianchi
 		[ Joined on 09/06 ]  [ Posted on October 25, 2007]
1 Points        
   
Savvy User
  Mercola
Type and sourcing of salt is KEY to benefit, at specific daily caloric intake, per metabolic typing, and other regiments including exercise!
Mercola
  
doc_olsen
 		[ Joined on 11/07 ]  [ Posted on November 15, 2007]
       
   
Novice User
  Mercola

I've been using the redmond salt from Utah and I love it. I haven't noticed any grittiness or strangeness about it.  It works terrific!
  
  
Dr Rik
[ Joined on 11/06 ] [ Posted on November 13, 2007 ]
4 Points        
   
 
Savvy User

Sea Salt is an excellent source of many minerals, but only my proprietary brand is any good. Send me your money.

 [ Reply ]
  
  
Rev. Dr. Kelley Elkins
 [ Joined on 11/07 ] [ Posted on November 13, 2007 ]
4 Points        
   
 
Novice User

Okay, there IS a huge difference between sodium from plants and sodium from the earth/ mineral. Our bodies REQUIRE sodium. However we are not earth worms...we do not eat dirt. (well, most of us don't) DA!   We eat plants and that is where our sodium comes from... Mineral sodium/salt being ionic bound is unavailable. Plant sodium being covalent bound IS available. (sodium is found in almost all food).

And there is a huge difference between processed pure NaCl salt and  "raw" salt. Salt that is not processed is like whole  vitamin C vs. ascorbic acid. These are both listed as vitamin C...but the ascorbic acid will give you kidney stone for starters... Whole Vitamin C with ascorbic acid, riboflavinoids and more, gives health.

According to anthropologists there was a (lateral) line across North America where one side used salt and the other didn't. The Indigenous People of North America weren't hurting for salt on either side of the line...On the side w/o salt they obviously didn't need it. They got plenty of Sodium from there food. We are incredibly brain washed, I went for years without salt, I used powdered kelp in my cooking and baking... great sodium source.

Squashes, celery and other vegetables are really high in sodium... do the research find out... And also find out how good food tastes without salt....and find out about raw salt. Food is wonderful ...just like life!

Thank you,

In Truth, Simplicity and Love,

Rev. Dr. Kelley Elkins

 [ Reply ]
  
  
Healing2
 [ Joined on 09/06 ] [ Posted on November 13, 2007 ]
3 Points        
   
 
Apprentice User

Thanks, Junkerman - I am very discouraged that the level of science knowledge is so sorely lacking in the people who have written comments here, and am a little relieved to know that ignorance is not 100%.

Terse, the structure would not change from 1200 degree heat.  Salt has an extremely high melting point, but dissociates easily into the Na+ and Cl- ions in water.  We're built to deal with it.  Try working is a hot steel mill without salt pills.  But I wouldn't recommend eating a bunch of pretzels and returning to life on the couch.  And steve m, 'chloride' is nothing like 'fluoride' nor is it like chlorine gas, which is highly toxic.  Salt is not something you would create in a lab when you can mine easily it.  Gandhi had his people drying sea water to get salt, rather than pay the tax.  I wouldn't do that today, with all the crap in the sea, but North America used to be sea bed, and as the great inland ocean dried up, the salt remained.  It is still sea salt, but from a cleaner environment.  (I don't think I'd eat anything off the ground in Utah anymore either, since the atomic testing.)  I'd go for the argument that the 2.5% of Morton's that is NOT salt is not something I'd want to consume, but methinks people are taking the point about "natural" salt a bit out of the realm of science, and Dr. Joe isn't helping much on this one.  Shouldn't the comments here be scrutinized more carefully to prevent us from deceiving ourselves into further ignorance?  God help us.

 [ Reply ]