Beware! That pub meal is likely to be very high in salt!

Consensus Action on Salt and Health (CASH) has been surveying the salt content of 526 pie, mash and gravy products from large pub chains, cafes, takeaways and supermarkets, as reported by hc2d.co.uk.

It's good that Consensus Action on Salt and Health keeps drawing attention to continuing high concentrations of salt in prepared meals, but after so many years of attention being drawn to this, retailers who sell meals to the public must know that for the sake of the health of their customers they should be lowering the amount of salt in those meals.

It seems then, that Wetherspoons and Punch Taverns don't care that their high salt meals are damaging their customers' health. It would seem that by making their meals salty, they hope to increase the thirst of the customers who eat them, and therefore to sell more drinks to them to quench that thirst. If you are one of those customers, I suggest you try telling the manager you would prefer the meals to be less salty. Failing that, you may like to consider taking your custom elsewhere for the sake of your health. If you cut down on salt and salty food, you will feel better and have more energy, and you'll lower your risk of stroke, heart attack, diabetes, cancer and dementia, as well as lowering high blood pressure and losing excess weight/fluid retention.

Professor Richard Bentall, psychologist, has trenchant views about psychiatric drugs

Professor Richard Bentall, psychologist, has trenchant views about psychiatric drugs and the harm they do. I heard him on Radio 4's Moral Maze this evening explaining that there are two main groups who profit from antidepressants and other psychiatric drugs - namely the shareholders of the drug companies, and the doctors/psychiatrists who make a living from prescribing the drugs. Good to hear some unambiguous honesty about these toxic drugs, and to have it pointed out by a respected academic that the evidence for their efficacy is all but non-existent. - Three Cheers for Professor Bentall!

And see Richard Bentall interview in which you will read him quoted as saying, " Drug companies are bribing American child psychiatrists with huge research grants to advocate this kind of treatment, and it’s beginning to happen in the UK. I don’t know how else to put it but that people are being bribed to poison children — and accepting the bribe." - I hope that has whetted your appetitite to read the whole article!

Guatemalans sue US government over deliberate syphilis infections by medical scientists in the 1940s

BBC News reports that hundreds of Guatemalans are suing the US government over being deliberately infected with syphilis or gonorrhoea by US medical scientists when they were studying penicillin in the 1940s, a 'crime against humanity' kept secret until a medical historian uncovered hidden records and made them public last year. See my earlier blogpost.

Psoriasis? Some members of the Psoriasis Help Organisation have found reducing salt intake has greatly reduced their problems with Psoriasis

Some members of the Psoriasis Help Organisation have found reducing salt intake has greatly reduced their problems with psoriasis. See Psoriasis Help Organisation forum page about Salt Sensitivity. In fact, cutting down on salt intake improves health in many ways, particularly in lowering high blood pressure and reducing obesity and risk of stroke, heart attack, heart disease, most cancers, breathing problems and type 2 diabetes. Why not try cutting down on salt and salty food for yourself? - Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better...(o:

British study finds that breastfed babies have higher IQs than bottlefed

The Telegraph reports study finding that breastfed babies are more intelligent than bottlefed: "there were two schools of thought on how breastfeeding had an effect: that long-chain fatty acids in breast milk helped the brain develop; and that the act of breastfeeding improved the mother-child bond."

I would ascribe much of the benefit babies get from being breastfed to the fact that breast milk is low in sodium, lower in sodium than formula milk. And breast milk is, of course, the food that has evolved over millions of years as that best suited to human babies, especially newborns. Children, and babies in particular, are harmed by too high intake of sodium/salt. See Children and Salt Intake.

So have you given up something for Lent?

Did you give up smoking? - That is excellent.

Did you give up sugar in your tea and coffee? - That's great. - Give up cakes and biscuits as well...(o:

Did you give up eating salt and salty food? - No? - It would improve your health in many ways and you would have more energy to do your work, pursue your interests, help other people... I hope you will consider cutting out, or at any rate, cutting down on, salt and salty food. That mainly means giving up processed food, ready meals and takeaways.

Did you give up dieting? - Unlikely, I guess. - And yet, dieting really isn't good for you. - If you've actually started to diet as a Lenten task, I hope you will consider swapping that resolve, and consider giving up sugar and salt instead. - Doing that swap would achieve the weight loss you wish for, without damaging your health as dieting does.

Holly McNish: I loved her performance poem WOW

I loved Holly McNish's newly composed poem for Woman of the World which I heard her perform on Radio 4's Woman's Hour omnibus edition today. You could listen to it using a link from this page.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the voluntary pledges of industry

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the voluntary pledges of industry, big business and multinationals, are unlikely to improve Public Health by the tiniest fraction of the smallest scrap of the littlest bit of an iota, and are negotiated by Governments, Health Ministers and Departments of Health, as the cynical tribute hypocrisy pays to virtue. Who but shysters would appoint the Food and Drinks Industry as advisers to the Department of Health with the aim of tackling the growing health problem of child obesity?

Asian rice output at risk from overuse of pesticides

The unbridled manufacture and use of pesticides in Asia is raising the spectre of "pest storms" devastating the region's rice farms and threatening food security, scientists have warned.
Read article in The Independent (UK)

PMT Problem? Here's what to do:

To reduce or completely put an end to PMT/PMS/Pre-Menstrual Tension you 'just' need to avoid salt and salty food, because this will cause your body to excrete the excess fluid/water weight that is causing the PMT. Fluid Retention caused by Salt Sensitivity is another way of expressing it. - Read about how to reduce PMT by eating less salt. - I say 'just' eat less salt/sodium, because this is by no means as simple as it sounds, in this modern world in which most of the food on sale in supermarkets is laden with very high concentrations of salt added by the food manufacturers. - Instead of relying on processed food and takeaways, you will need to buy fresh raw food and cook it yourself with little or no added salt. But the great improvement in your health and well-being that this will bring about will prove well worth the effort. - Go on! - Try it and see for yourself!

BBC News reports that England is 'healthier than the US'

BBC News reports that England is 'healthier than the US' and my subjectively selective quote...(o: from the article is: "The researchers say: "Why health status differs so dramatically in these two countries, which share much in terms of history and culture, is an unresolved puzzle."

Well, Stone me! as Tony Hancock might have said if he were still alive. - It's not a puzzle! - It's a no-brainer! - The US takes more junk medication than as yet the Brits do, and the US Food Industry and the US Agribusiness and GM/BioTech bullyboys ensure that Americans largely eat toxic, adulterated, additive-drenched, over-salted, HFCS-loaded, nutrition-lite crap instead of real food. How can the US possibly be healthy when most people's bodies and brains are having to contend with that poisonous combo continually assaulting them?

A happy email I received yesterday from the USA

This is the message the email contained:

"I wanted to let you know that I followed your advice about lowering sodium intake. I'm only about 10 lbs over weight but I had high blood pressure. I take blood pressure medicine but my Dr. wanted to give me a different blood pressure medicine with a diuretic in it. I refused to change to it. I wanted to reduce my blood pressure with out additional medicine and why is it getting higher. I started more exercise and watching what I eat but that was not working. Then I found your web site and started looking at all the foods we eat. My wife and I changed the types of food we eat and do not eat any with high sodium content. We cook more of our own dishes and eat just as good as we want. I try to limit sodium to 1500 mg and in two months time I have reduced my blood pressure by 25 points and feel much better. I can't wait until my next checkup to show the Doctor my results.

I think it is a shame that so much emphasis is placed on Calories, cholesterol and fat content but never a mention of sodium.

Thanks for your research."

If you have high blood pressure, why not try following that advice on my website and you too will find your blood pressure will go down and you will feel much better, like the man who wrote to me.