From the Contrary to Popular Opinion Files

Low-salt diet ups risk of fatal heart attack?

Doctors and public health officials have been telling us for years that eating too much sodium can increase the risk of heart attack or stroke by raising blood pressure to unsafe levels. So how to explain a new study that suggests low salt intake actually increases the risk of dying from those causes?

The study, which followed 3,681 healthy European men and women age 60 or younger for about eight years, also found that above-average sodium intake did not appear to up the risk of developing high blood pressure (hypertension) or dying of a heart attack or stroke...

It's been pretty clear for years that the risks of dietary salt have been grossly exaggerated. There is a subset of people, perhaps 10%, who react to high levels of salt with  hypertension.  But for most of us, salting our food to give it some taste is a harmless vice.  I have always like my salt, and my blood pressure has stubbornly stayed at 120/80 as long a I can remember.  The idea the government needs to step in to protect us from salt in our diet is absurd.  Why should the healthy majority suffer for the metabolic frailties of the minority?