An astonishing 99.99% of Americans fail to get the minimum recommended amount of potassium (although it is probably only half of our natural intake) and stay below the recommended sodium (although it may be twice our natural intake).
Globally, physical inactivity accounts for more than 10 million years of healthy life lost, but what we eat it does about 20 times that. An unhealthy diet shaves hundreds of millions of years off people’s lives every year.
What are the worst aspects of our diet? Four of the five most dangerous food traps involve not eating enough of certain foods—not eating enough whole grains, fruits, nuts and seeds, and not eating enough vegetables. But our deadliest mistake is too much salt—it’s about 15 times more deadly than a diet with too much soda, for example, to help put things into perspective. You can see the breakdown below and at 1:12 in my video Less than 1 in 5,000 Recommended Sodium and Potassium Exposures.
“There is no other more effective public health action related to diet than reducing sodium in the diet,” said a former commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration.
That’s why national and international health organizations have called for warning labels on salt packets and salt mixes, with messages like: “Too much sodium in food causes high blood pressure and increases the risk of stomach cancer, stroke, heart disease and kidney disease. Limit your consumption.”
Salt also increases inflammation. For example, sodium intake is associated with increased disease activity in multiple sclerosis (MS), an autoimmune inflammatory disease, with approximately three to four times the rate of increase in moderate or high sodium intake compared to those who receive less than a teaspoon of salt per day.
Just as you can see high sodium levels in the tissues of those who suffer from lupus, another serious autoimmune disease, you can correlate high sodium levels in the spinal cord of MS patients with the disease and decreased structural integrity.
Where is sodium found, though? In really sour food. Therefore, it is difficult to know whether an increased intake of salt is just a symptom of an overall unhealthy diet. We know that salt and high blood pressure are cause and effect. How? More than 100 randomized controlled trials have shown that cutting back on added salt lowers blood pressure, and the more salt you cut, the better. Part of the mechanism may be the damage salt can do to the microbiome, the friendly flora in the gut.
And no wonder. Our bodies only evolved to handle about 750 mg per day. The American Heart Association says we should stay at least twice that amount, but we eat more than four times what is natural. And it’s getting worse, worse over the last decade. Care to guess what percentage of Americans exceed the upper limit recommendation of 1,500 mg? It turned out to be an increase of 98.8%. And that was over ten years ago!
Most adults in the United States consume too much sodium and, at the same time, too little potassium, an essential mineral. bring down blood pressure. Less than 2% of US adults consume the minimum recommended daily intake of potassium. Therefore, more than 98% of Americans eat a diet that is low in potassium. This deficiency becomes even more noticeable when what we eat now is compared to what our ancestors, who ate a large amount of potassium food. We probably came up with more than 10,000 mg a day. The recommendation is to get at least half of that, however most of us don’t come close, as you can see below and at 3:51 in mine. video.
Combine these two guidelines, and the sodium and potassium goals are currently met by less than 0.015% of the population in the United States. That’s close to 99.99% noncompliance—only 1 in 6,000 Americans meet the recommended guidelines.
How about using potassium based salt substitutes, like the ones shown below and 4:15 in mine video?
Instead of using sodium chloride, also known as salt, why not move on to others potassium chloride? It seems too good to be true. It has the same salty taste while reducing sodium and increasing potassium intake? Is there a catch? Are potassium-based salt substitutes safe? Do they work? Stay tuned to find out.
Doctor’s Note
This is the first video in a three-part series on sodium, potassium, and the salt environment. stay tuned Are Potassium Chloride Salt Substitutes Worth Trying? again Is it Is Potassium Chloride a Safe and Effective Salt Substitute?.
What about those who say salt is not a problem? Don’t believe them. See related posts below.
