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.

Many restaurant meals contain too much salt

BBC News reports that a "survey of nearly 700 popular meals served in celebrity chef and High Street restaurants found half were high in salt - equivalent to a red traffic light label on a supermarket product. From their research, Consensus Action on Salt and Health (Cash) discovered that the 13 saltiest main meals contained more than the maximum recommended daily intake of 6g of salt."

To give Consensus Action on Salt and Health its due, it keeps on checking salt levels in various food products and in various establishments that serve meals, and it keeps on bringing out reports which draw attention to the continued high levels of salt that are potentially harmful to consumers. Professor Graham  MacGregor reminds us that "Salt puts up our blood pressure, and as a result, thousands of people die unnecessarily each year from strokes, heart attacks and heart failure. Whilst efforts have been made by foods in supermarkets to use less salt, chefs' preference for saltier foods is preventing further progress. It's clear from our survey that some chefs are not listening to their customers."

I just wish that, as well as drawing attention to high salt intake increasing blood pressure and causing premature deaths from strokes, heart attacks and heart failure, health experts would inform people that salt intake is a major factor in problems of obesity, child obesity and morbid obesity. This is especially the case for people who take or have taken prescribed steroids, HRT, antidepressants, some contraceptive medications, anti-convulsant/anti-epileptic drugs, anti-psychotics, and some other prescription drugs.

Read about how to lose weight by eating less salt and salty food.

SALT: it doesn't just kill slugs, it can kill people too

Some people kill slugs by sprinkling salt onto them. This draws the water out of their very watery bodies and produces a sort of slug sludge. It seems a peculiarly cruel death. The internet can supply more kindly ways to divest oneself of unwelcome slugs.

 

When salt kills people it is usually a more long-drawn-out death. Instead of the salt drawing water out of its victim's body as with the slug, it draws more water into the body. Salt's victims tend to be babies/small children, who are vulnerable to salt because of the immaturity of their organs and their blood vessels, or pregnant women, made vulnerable to salt by hormone changes in their bodies, or other groups made sensitive to salt, most notably by taking commonly prescribed drugs, including antidepressants and steroids. All of these groups, because of excess fluid retention (extra salt and water, mainly held in the bloodstream), tend to become overweight/obese/morbidly obese, with the health consequences attendant on that, including high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease, cancer (especially stomach cancer), arthritis, insomnia, depression, impaired kidney function, liver problems, type 2 diabetes and many more, as well as emotional distress because of the stigmatising attitudes provoked by obesity in modern-day societies.

 

You could lose weight and reduce your risk of suffering from the unpleasant, unhealthy consequences of salt sensitivity/vulnerability, of early disability and premature death, by simply eating less salt and salty food. - Go on! - Try it! - You will feel sooo much better! - and, dare I say it? - less sluggish!

Merck and the Vioxx saga

"The Vioxx saga continues. Nearly eight years after Merck withdrew the controversial painkiller over links to heart attacks and strokes, a new paper indicates the drugmaker hid evidence that Vioxx tripled the risk of cardiovascular death for more than three years before taking the pill off the market in 2004. During the same period, the paper in the American Heart Journal notes, Merck had regularly insisted such an increased did not exist."
Read article at pharmalot.com

New warning about high salt content of bread

BBC News reports that Consensus Action on Salt & Health (CASH) campaigners are warning again about the high salt content of bread. "A third of breads contain more salt than recommended under guidelines being introduced next year, a survey found. Most breads were within the current guidelines of 1.1g of salt per 100g - but this is being cut to 1g per 100g. Campaign for Action on Salt and Health (Cash), which looked at 300 breads, said it was "outrageous" that bread contained even the current level."

These are the groups of people who are vulnerable to salt. If you are vulnerable to salt you may like to consider cutting down on the amount of bread you eat. At any rate, you could benefit your health by choosing a lower salt bread, using the information given on the CASH website.

The Department of Health remains complacent: "The Department of Health said "considerable" salt reductions had already been made." - That's as in 'considerable' salt reductions from the scandalously high levels of salt most bread has contained for many years. The bread industry has assuredly played a major part in the distressingly high incidence of high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease and obesity in modern times. It has also helped to cause most people in our country to develop a taste for salt - like an addiction - such that food with little or no added salt tastes too 'bland' to them.

"British Retail Consortium food director Andrew Opie said retailers and manufacturers are to fund independent research to look for ways of meeting the 2012 target - "while still making foods which consumers want to buy"." - I'll translate that for you. - It means that they are doing their damnedest, by means of additives and technology, to lower the salt content by the minimum they can get away with, while retaining the same degree of salty taste in order to keep their customers addicted to salty bread.

Concern about growing incidence of dementia and its cost to UK economy

The number of people with dementia in the UK is higher than was previously thought, as BBC News reports here, and it is expected that before 2025 the number will exceed one million.

"Researchers from the University of Oxford compared the cost of caring for a person with dementia to the cost of dealing with cancer, heart disease or stroke - the three main causes of death in the UK.

As well as immediate health care expenses, they looked at the costs of social care, unpaid carers and productivity losses.

Every dementia patient, they found, costs the economy £27,647 each year - nearly five times more than a cancer patient, and eight times more than those with heart disease."

Obviously, with degenerative diseases, prevention is a far cheaper and better option than treatment/cure. Happily, the risk of developing any or all of these degenerative conditions - dementia, cancer, heart disease and stroke and many more - is significantly lowered by cutting down on salt and salty food, because obesity is a common causative factor in all of them, and obesity itself is reduced by eating less salt and salty food.

The need to rein in the continual increase in pharmaceutical drugs being prescribed by NHS doctors is ever more urgent, since scores of prescription drugs cause obesity by weakening the blood vessel walls and thus causing sensitivity to salt. The blood vessels become distended with sodium and water retention and the increased blood volume raises blood pressure as well as weight. Prescription drugs are the major cause of the most serious cases of obesity, namely morbid obesity. - Ironic, isn't it? - The NHS pays loadsamoney for prescription drugs, many of which do serious damage to the innocent patients who take them. (The 'guilty' drugs include steroids, anti-depressants, anti-psychotics, and many more. It's best only to take pharmaceutical drugs if you really need them.)

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, osteomalacia, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, boost your lung function and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it!

See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Sodium in foods

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

Kellogg's to reduce high salt content of Rice Krispies, Corn Flakes and other breakfast cereals

Kellogg's is to reduce the high salt content of Rice Krispies and Corn Flakes, Coco Pops and Ricicles, Frosties and Crunchy Nut, from March, as reported here. Well this is very good news. It will save a lot of suffering. The salt content of these junk cereals will still be high though, even after the reduction. "The move follows repeated warnings from the FSA that the nation is eating too much salt, calculating the average daily salt consumption is 8.6g, which is 43% above the recommended limit of 6g. The figure is linked to 14,200 premature deaths a year from conditions linked to high blood pressure, including strokes and heart attacks."

These cereals are especially unsuitable for toddlers and small children because children are more vulnerable to salt than adults are. High salt intake is a primary cause of child obesity.

See Children and Obesity
Sodium in foods

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, osteomalacia, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, boost your lung function and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.
Fat retention and fat excretion: the importance of getting enough calcium.

Surgical Stockings Do Not Help Stroke Patients to Avoid Blood Clots

BBC News reports that around two thirds of stroke patients are unable to walk on admission to hospital and approximately 15% develop blood clots because of this lack of movement.

A large Lancet study, by the University of Edinburgh, involved over 2,500 stroke patients in the UK, Italy and Australia. They were divided into two groups. All received routine care, including aspirin and assisted exercise, but half were offered surgical stockings as well.

After 30 days there was no significant difference in the blood clot rate in the two groups but the group given stockings experienced more skin breaks, ulcers and blisters than those without.

Researcher Professor Martin Dennis said: "We have shown conclusively that compression stockings do not work for stroke patients.

"The national guidelines need to be revised and we need further research to establish effective treatments for these patients.

"Abandoning this ineffective and sometimes uncomfortable treatment will free up valuable resources in our health services."

If you cut down on salt and salty food you will reduce your risk of stroke and many other health problems.

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

See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Sodium in foods

FSA wants salt levels to be further reduced

The Telegraph reports that the Food Standard Agency is urging the Food Industry to cut salt levels further in order to save avoidable deaths.

In my opinion, both the Food Standards Agency and the Food Industry need to pull their little socks up and get real about this vitally important public health measure. - Salt reduction in bread and other processed foods is going at the speed of a slug on tranquillisers...)o:

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

See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

False Health Claims for Cheerios Violate Federal Law

Bloomberg reports that Cheerios are in trouble because of claiming to lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer.

I'd like to point out that Cheerios is extremely high in salt/sodium, and so for this reason too, cannot possibly be regarded as a healthy food.

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

See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

UK Stroke Patients Still Suffer Delays in Treatment

BBC News reports that many stroke patients still do not receive the rapid attention and diagnostic tests necessary to minimise risk of serious damage.

The Royal College of Physicians found that "only 29% of patients were admitted to a stroke unit on the same day as their stroke, and only 57% within two days."

You can reduce your risk of stroke by cutting down on salt.

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

See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

Takeways and adult ready meals do not give toddlers a healthy start in life.

Wales News online has some good advice here

These meals - takeaways and ready meals - tend to be low in essential nutrients like vitamins, and they also contain a high proportion of salt/sodium, and salt is particularly bad for small children, as well as giving them a taste for salty food which will continue to impair their health as they grow older. They will have higher blood pressure than if they were eating less salty food,. They will be more likely to develop type 2 diabetes and heart problems. They will even be more likely to have a stroke at a young age! - You may also be surprised to learn that it is salt and salty food that causes obesity in children.

You will give your children a healthier and happier start in life if you give them less salty food to eat and if you encourage them to eat plenty of fruit and fresh vegetables.

See Children and Obesity

And see Sodium in foods

Out of court settlement for family whose father died after health professionals misdiagnosed his stroke three times

Father died after stroke was missed three times
article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Jeffery Wingrove, 48, died in hospital less than 48 hours after collapsing at home with severe vomiting and crippling headaches in December 2006.

His wife Isabelle, 52, rang her out-of-hours GP service run by Primecare, a privately contracted firm, but they twice refused to make a home visit.

Claiming he did not qualify as he was not elderly, they instead offered to fax a prescription for pain killers to her local pharmacy for her to collect.

Paramedics were called as his condition worsened but they misdiagnosed Jeffery with severe vertigo and gave him paracetamol.

By the next day Mr Wingrove was in so much pain he was rushed to hospital by ambulance where a scan revealed that part of his brain had been severely damaged by a stroke. Doctors attempted surgery but he died the following morning."

Medics set far too much store by painkillers. - How could anyone think that severe vomiting would be helped by taking paracetamol?

Britain's most-popular brands of bread could be banned from claiming health benefits of their very salty loaves, under draft EU regulations.

Bakers face ban on claiming salty breads are healthy
article in the Telegraph

Extracts:

"Bakers would no longer be able to market their products as "high in fibre" or "wholesome" if they contain more than 1g of salt per 100g.

Research in 2007 indicated that nearly half of loaves on supermarket shelves in Britain were above this threshold, indicating that the proposed rule could affect millions of loaves sold each year.

Major producers including Warburtons and Hovis are among the worst offenders, tests have shown, with some breads marked multigrain, organic or "diet" containing higher than recommended levels of salt.

Bread is the largest single source of salt in our diet and health experts say that cutting the amount used in baking could save 7,000 lives a year by reducing rates of heart attacks and strokes.

The EU limit is lower than a 1.1g per 100g target set for 2010 by the Food Standards Agency."

"The British Federation of Bakers said that the salt content of loaves had fallen substantially in recent years, and said that the EU regulations may include exemptions for certain types of loaf – including wholemeal and brown – by the time they are finalised next month."

I regard it as disgraceful that bread manufacturers have been allowed to manufacture and sell these high salt breads when it is known that high salt intake can and does harm health.

You can easily make your own bread by using a breadmaker and ensure that it has a much lower sodium content, especially if you use a lower sodium salt substitute instead of ordinary table salt.

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

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free. I am not a doctor or a dietician or a nutritionist. My website does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Along with the post, the postman delivered some literature about stroke today.

According to that literature, the care and treatment of stroke places a greater financial burden on the economy than that of any other condition - £7 billion a year - and accounts for 11% of deaths in the UK. It says almost one in four men and one in five women aged 45 can expect to have a stroke if they live to 85.

You may know or may have known someone in the past who suffered a stroke. I knew an old lady who had a stroke and it was a very disabling and distressing condition for her, especially because she then developed dementia too. And I knew a highly intelligent fellow who had a stroke and suffered greatly because of the frustrations of communication problems. And I remember how hard it was for his wife, a woman of great fortitude, to look after him because she was multiply-disabled herself.

You can greatly reduce your risk of a stroke by significantly lowering your intake of salt and salty food. - It would certainly be worth it.

Here is the URL of the Stroke Association, which helps stroke victims and their families: www.stroke.org.uk

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

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

Warning that there's a great deal of salt in a traditional Christmas meal.

Christmas lunch contains twice daily recommended amount of salt
article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"The traditional festive meal of turkey with all the trimmings, Christmas pudding and bread sauce rounded off with a slice of stilton contains more than 11g of salt (0.4oz).

Researchers from the group Consensus Action on Salt and Health (CASH) said the levels found in each course of a typical Christmas Day lunch would be dangerous if eaten everyday.

Eating too much salt can cause high blood pressure, which is linked to an increased risk of stroke and heart disease."

High salt intake can seriously harm your health in many ways.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, 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!

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

breakfast cup of coffee and a muffin on the way to work contains a third of the recommended daily salt limit, a study has warned.

Breakfast of coffee and a muffin 'can contain high levels of salt'
article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"The worst offenders among those tested were a Starbucks Cinnamon Swirl, which contained 1.74g of salt, the equivalent of two rashers of bacon, and Costa's Raspberry and White Chocolate Muffin, which contained 1.71g.

But the study warns that a "healthy" home breakfast can also be high in salt.

Researchers found that those who kick-started the day with a bowl of cornflakes and two slices of toast with butter and Marmite took in half of their recommended daily salt limit, around 2.8g.

Those who ate the same meal with jam instead of Marmite still took in a third of their daily salt limit, around 1.8g.

A full English breakfast can contain more than the daily recommended limit of salt, the study also found.

A fry-up which includes two sausages, two rashers of bacon, two slices of black pudding, one fried egg, mushrooms, baked beans, a tomato and one slice of toast with butter, contains around 6.1 g of salt.

Carrie Bolt, a nutritionist with CASH, said: "When eating breakfast away from home, customers shunning greasy spoons for coffee shop breakfasts could actually be eating more salt and would be better off choosing lower salt options from the greasy spoon menu."

Doctors recommend that salt intake be limited because it can push up blood pressure levels, increasing the risk of heart disease or stroke."

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

How to Lose weight!

Children and Obesity

See Sodium in foods

vulnerable groups

See amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

Further study findings about Vioxx adverse side-effects

Study: Vioxx risk lingered after use of painkiller
A doubled risk of heart attack, stroke and death persisted at least a year after people stopped taking withdrawn painkiller Vioxx, according to an analysis of long-term data from the study that led drugmaker Merck & Co. to stop selling the drug.
Read Associated Press news report at google.com

Diabetes sufferers warned aspirin increases bleeding risk.

Diabetes sufferers warned aspirin increases bleeding risk
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Many diabetics take the drug to thin the blood and reduce the risk of suffering a heart attack, the main cause of death from the disease.

But a new study suggests that taking the medication could be doing more harm than good.

Scientists have shown that aspirin does not cut the risk of a heart attack for even high-risk diabetics, unless they previously suffer from heart disease.

But the drug is known to increase the risk of bleeding in the gut.

Scientists at the University of Dundee gave 1,276 diabetics aspirin, an antioxidant or a placebo, and followed their progress over eight years.

They found that neither the aspirin or the antioxidant reduced the risk of suffering a heart attack, even in the groups at high risk.

Professor Jill Belch, who led the study, published on BMJ.com, the website of the British Medical Journal, said that aspirin should be given only to patients who have already been diagnosed with heart disease or suffered a stroke."

It has long been known that aspirin increases the risk of bleeding in the gut. I remember in 1994 when I had a major operation, the surgeon who did the operation warned me to avoid aspirin because I tend to bleed easily, so it was certainly well known all those years ago. - This new research is unambiguous - that aspirin does not reduce the risk of heart attack or stroke, even in groups at high risk, unless the patients have already been diagnosed with heart disease or suffered a stroke. - Why then have people been advised for years that low-dose daily aspirin lowers the risk of having a heart attack or a stroke? - There cannot have been evidence to support the advice because this research shows that the advice was WRONG. - Obviously THE ADVICE WAS GUESSWORK ON THE PART OF SOMEONE IN THE MEDICAL PROFESSION...)o: - GUESSWORK THAT MUST HAVE HARMED MANY PATIENTS OVER THE YEARS...)o:

Like the guesswork that was responsible for mothers being advised to lay their babies on their tummies to go to sleep although there was no evidence to support the idea that this was the safest way for babies to sleep. - After Anne Diamond, the former TV presenter, tragically lost a baby to cot death, she instigated research into this and the research showed that this position could cause cot death and that the safest position for a baby to sleep is on its back, and now mothers are given the right advice - "BACK TO SLEEP!"

Anne Diamond's response to her personal tragedy has resulted in babies being safer when sleeping in their cots and she must have saved many families from the grief of avoidable cot deaths.

DOCTORS SHOULD NOT BE GIVING ADVICE THAT IS PURELY GUESSWORK, WHILE IMPLYING THAT THERE IS RELIABLE SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT WHAT THEY SAY.

THE MAIN AND MOST IMPORTANT GUESSWORK THEY MADE DECADES AGO AND HAVE STILL NEVER BOTHERED TO TEST FOR ACCURACY - BECAUSE IN THEIR ARROGANCE THEY DECIDED THEY MUST BE RIGHT AND THERE WAS NO NEED TO CHECK - IS THE HIGHLY DANGEROUS AND EXTREMELY HARMFUL ADVICE TO OVERWEIGHT AND OBESE PEOPLE THAT TO LOSE WEIGHT THEY MUST EAT LESS FOOD/FEWER CALORIES/LESS FAT. - THIS ADVICE IS UNTESTED, UNSUPPORTED BY EVIDENCE AND CATEGORICALLY IT DOES NOT WORK!

I wonder which patients, rich enough to go to law, brave enough to take on the over-powerful medical profession, and not too ill and exhausted to cope with the Law's delay and obfuscation, will be the first to sue the members of the medical profession who have done them so much harm with their damaging, useless advice and insults?

Overweight and obesity are caused by fluid retention, and occur only in people who are sensitive to salt/sodium. - To lose excess weight it is necessary to cut down on salt and salty food. - So instead of eating a ready meal you need to cook a meal from fresh ingredients and use little or no salt to flavour it. - You could try using pepper or herbs instead of salt, or if you feel you cannot yet give up salt, then use a little of one of the low sodium salt substitutes, e.g. LoSalt, Solo Low Sodium Sea Salt or AlsoSalt, instead of ordinary salt.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of heart attack and stroke, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, dieting, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

If you need my help, I can be contacted from my website. - My help is free.

Even supermarket staples can contain terrifying levels of harmful additives, endangering the health of our nation's children

I've only come across this article today, so apologies that it was published back in January this year.

A killer on the shelves: the shocking truth about children's food
Article in the Independent

Extracts:

1) Baked beans and beef-burgers; sausages and cereals; pizzas and pita breads are among the most innocuous sounding items we might throw into a supermarket trolley: lunchbox staples and dinner-time essentials that many parents rely upon to keep their offspring happy and their wallets not entirely depleted.

But these foods have a hidden catch, an ingredient whose danger – despite being well-documented by health experts – is still not recognised by the average consumer. Although small amounts of this mineral are essential to life, we take so much that it has become an insidious killer, responsible for more deaths than wars, traffic accidents or illegal drugs. And yet it is kept in kitchens across the country – next to the pepper.

Salt, the secret killer of processed food, is everywhere. We eat two-thirds more of it than we should. Every time we tuck into a sandwich, or a packet of crisps – sometimes even cheese – there is a good chance we are raising our blood pressure.

2) With encouragement from the FSA, manufacturers have been reducing the amount of salt in food for the past 10 years. [I find that a questionable statement. - The FSA was not even in existence 10 years ago. It did not get started till 2000. And its salt advice, to the best of my recollection and knowledge did not start till 2003.]

3) Professor Graham MacGregor, Cash's chairman and professor of cardiovascular medicine at St George's Hospital in London, urged manufacturers to step up their efforts to take salt out of food. "Anything that lowers blood pressure in childhood is likely to translate into lower levels of blood pressure in adult life, with reduced risk of developing heart disease and stroke," he said.

"And it's not just heart attacks and strokes that are caused by a high-salt diet. Too much salt is also linked with stomach cancer and osteoporosis and can aggravate the symptoms of asthma.

"If they really cannot reduce the salt content in food eaten by children to reasonable levels, perhaps they should consider ceasing production." [My emphasis.]

4) The British food and drink industry is keen to show that it is acting responsibly. An analysis of 100,000 products for the Food and Drink Federation by market research firm TNS Worldpanel showed that, in the past 12 months, 2,000 tons of salt had been removed from crisps, breakfast cereals, bread, home cooking products, and canned goods. Peter East, a director of TNS Worldpanel, said the average consumer purchased 0.3 per cent less salt in 2007.

That's a laugh! - "Peter East, a director of TNS Worldpanel, said the average consumer purchased 0.3 per cent less salt in 2007." - 0.3% less! - A few grains! - Good grief! Is he joking?

High salt intake in childhood causes child obesity. - It's disgraceful that this hugely important fact is not published by the obesity 'experts' and the experts on high blood pressure.

How to Lose weight!

Children and Obesity

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

See FAT RETENTION