There is evidence that Salt-Related Health Problems include calcium urinary stones

Evidence that Salt-Related Health Problems include calcium urinary stones, as you can read on this pdf. - www.saltmatters.org/site/uploads/PDFs/SRHP%2025+table.pdf - This is one of the less well-known health benefits that can be experienced by reducing intake of salt and salty food. - See also Associated Health Problems.

Cave Salem!

If my blog and I were transported back in time, and you, Dear Reader, were an Ancient Roman, then I might well say to you, "Cave salem!" thus giving you a bit of advice to improve your health. Though of course, as an Ancient Roman, you would not be particularly in need of that bit of advice...(o: 

 

But in our present-day culture, and speaking in English, I say, "Beware of salt!" and that is a very necessary warning for most people, because there is way too much added salt in our modern diets. The Food Industry ladles a great deal of salt into the ready meals and other processed food products it manufactures. - Excessive salt intake may well be contributing to your weight problem, or to your high blood pressure and breathlessness. It may well have been the main factor in the stroke or heart attack you had or any/all of the chronic ill-health you suffer. - Be that as it may, if you cut down on the amount of salt and salty food you eat, you will feel ever so much better, have more energy and think more clearly. Give it a try! - Read about salt in food.

Are you overweight and apple-shaped? You could reduce this problem by reducing salt intake.

Are you overweight and apple-shaped? You could reduce the problem by cutting down on salt and salty food. Everyone who is overweight has a higher than normal blood volume because of excess water/fluid retention, and would benefit from eating less salt/sodium. 

(Steroid victims in particular are at risk of huge weight gain and the dangerous condition of being obese and apple-shaped, because they are so seldom informed that they need seriously to reduce their salt intake while taking the steroid meds.)

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, angina, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

As I gradually lowered my salt/sodium intake, this gradually reduced my excess weight. I lost 50 pounds in 14 months.

As I gradually lowered my salt/sodium intake, this gradually reduced my excess weight. I lost 50 pounds in 14 months. I weighed myself once a week while I was reducing my salt intake. Almost every week I had lost some more weight, though some weeks I stayed at the same weight as the previous week. There was only ONE week that I gained weight during the whole of that 14 month period. It was the week that I was out one day and bought a sandwich from a shop to have for my lunch. That week I gained a pound. (Shop-bought sandwiches are usually high in salt.) - I invite you to read my Mensa article about Obesity and the Salt Connection. And I invite you to try it yourself: lose excess weight by eating less salt and salty food. - Go on! - Try it! - You will feel sooo much better!

On Radio 4's Inside Health programme today one of the topics discussed was Tinnitus

On Radio 4's Inside Health programme today one of the topics discussed was Tinnitus. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that cutting salt intake was mentioned as helpful with this problem. Nonetheless if you type something like "tinnitus salt reduction" into your favourite search engine you will see that many people find that sodium reduction reduces the intensity of their tinnitus. I believe this is because there is a connection between tinnitus and fluid retention. - Anyway, since we are constantly advised these days to eat less salt to reduce heart disease and the risk of high blood pressure, heart attack and stroke, and it is manifestly good for health to reduce salt intake, why not take the plunge and seriously cut down on salt and salty food? This is a safe, cost-free and drug-free course of action. It may very well improve your tinnitus problem as well as benefiting your general health and longevity. - What's not to like?

If you check the salt/sodium levels in the packets and cans in your food cupboards you may be surprised at how high they are

If you check the salt/sodium levels in the packets and cans in your food cupboards you may be surprised at how high they are. On labels, more than 0.5g of sodium (1.25g salt) per 100g is high, less than 0.2g sodium (0.5g salt) is low. To convert sodium content to salt content, multiply the sodium by 2.5
Find out more about Sodium in Food.

In general, if you are overweight, then to improve health and lose weight you need to be eating and drinking food that is as natural as possible - cooking fresh meat and fish and vegetables, drinking plain water and tea, rather than choosing highly processed food containing high salt levels.

New Year Resolution Suggestions

If you've not yet decided on your New Year Resolution, here are some suggestions that will benefit the health of your body, the efficiency of your brain and the happiness of your spirit:

1) Give up dieting. It is a major cause of ill-health and depression. Dieting to try to lose excess weight is ineffective, unnecessary and harmful. Calorie counting and advice about increasing exercise and reducing fat intake to reduce obesity are ineffective, counter-productive and often damaging. - See the article in the British Medical Journal of November 2003 http://www.bmj.com/content/327/7423/1085.full for actual research on what happens when this advice is followed! - Over 800 obese adults were put on energy deficit diets, given diet sheets and plenty of instruction and help from trained staff, and apparently, visited fortnightly for a year, at the end of which they had GAINED weight! This mirrors the real experience of obese people, viz. - dieting makes you fat.

It is commonly accepted now, except by the 'experts', that less than 5% of dieters actually lose weight, and most gain weight as a result of dieting. - Even the ones who manage to lose weight do not usually improve their health. - See http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2005/jun/27/sciencenews.research for a report in The Guardian of Monday, June 27th 2005. It is about a huge research study of nearly 3000 people over a period of 18 years. The study found that overweight people who diet to reach a healthier weight are more likely to die young than those who remain fat. It also found that dieting causes physiological damage that in the long term can outweigh the benefits of the weight loss.

2) Seriously cut down on salt and salty food.

3) Avoid prescription drugs, especially antidepressants, steroids and painkillers, unless they really are necessary and you have checked out their side-effects. The adverse effects of pharmaceutical drugs are often far more damaging than the problem for which they have been prescribed.

I wish you better health, success and happiness in this New Year of 2012!