Salt Health Risk – a Pinch of Doubt

by Ian Thorpe in Issues, September 6, 2011

You’re probably sick of hearing dire warnings about the harmful effects of salt in the diet. As with Anthropogenic Global Warming however there are two sides to the debate but only one is presented in mainstream media.
This article tries to go some way to redressing the balance by showing that as with AGW the "science" is by no means settled.

After years of claims by the academic lobby who are in the pay of big pharma and big government that on salt “the science is settled” (now where have we heard that before?) in recent months debate that has flared with each side harnessing a legion of experts in hypertension, heart disease, nutrition and scientific analysis. The salt industry has, naturally, jumped on studies that question the conventional wisdom, and at least one food manufacturer has started to add salt back to some of its processed foods. At times, as happened when people started to challenge the spurious and now discredited claims that the science was settled and carbon dioxide emitted by human activity was solely responsible for climate problems, the row became very personal with the science lobby, having no logical argument other than, “We’re scientists, that proves we’re right,” adopting tactics usually associated with religious zealots and political seditionists to attack their critics.

Us poor consumers are again trapped in the middle of these two interest groups, both of which stand to gain by winning their case. Some people in the anti – salt lobby may have jumped to the conclusion that I am a fan of salty food. They could not be more wrong, I have always hated salty food and the junk food which relies on the addition of excessive salt to mask the fact that it is over processed, disgusting, bland, tasteless pap. I dislike the taste of salt too. But such things are down to individual choice.

Instead of being allowed to exercise our freedom to choose we have become unsuspecting guinea pigs in a grand global experiment.

“The two sides are totally polarized and there’s no agreement or consensus on what the answer is,” says Peter Sherratt of the UK Salt Association. “Any new scientific paper which supports the anti-salt position is lauded as proof salt consumption is dangerous, but any piece of evidence or science showing salt is beneficial, or reducing it dangerous, is criticized as unrepresentative and unscientific,” he said. This sounds, does it not, exactly like a reprise of the non – debate about carbon dioxide, with the side that has government and the media on board simply shouting down opposing views.

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The salt issue has big implications for the pharmaceutical business however. Salt used in food accounts for only a fraction of the 250 million tonnes of annual global production. Looking at the United States alone, 1.5 million tonnes of so-called human nutrition salt was sold in 2009 with a value of more than $321 million.

But the U.S. snack foods industry, a key consumer of salt which includes major companies like Pepsico’s Frito-Lay and Kraft’s Nabisco, has a combined annual revenue of $27 billion, according to analysis by company profile builder Hoover’s. Then there’s the business of selling drugs to treat high blood pressure. Worldwide sales of anti-hypertensives were around $35 billion in 2009, according to research by Deutsche Bank.

So when we look objectively at the case against salt and wonder why it is so demonised, as usual it’s a case of “follow the money.” Regardless of the effect on health, there is more money at stake for the supporters of the anti salt lobby, particularly if they can persuade government to pass the laws that will make criminals of those who refuse to take their daily doses of blood thinners, beta blockers and artery scrubbers. Just don’t ask about the harmful effects such drugs might have on people who don’t actually suffer from the conditions the drugs treat.

This article is the first in a short series on the great salt scam.