Taubes On Salt

Writing in the NY Times, Gary Taubes (feared foe of sugar and refined carbs) wants the government to suspend hostilities with salt:

Salt, We Misjudged You

...Salt consumption is said to raise blood pressure, cause hypertension and increase the risk of premature death. This is why the Department of Agriculture’s dietary guidelines still consider salt Public Enemy No. 1, coming before fats, sugars and alcohol. It’s why the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has suggested that reducing salt consumption is as critical to long-term health as quitting cigarettes.

And yet, this eat-less-salt argument has been surprisingly controversial — and difficult to defend. Not because the food industry opposes it, but because the actual evidence to support it has always been so weak.

And he goes on to explain. Scientific American advanced similar arguments last summer, so Taubes is not even a lonely voice here.

The bad news is, he is probably right (although I say, mind your potassium/sodim ratio). Which means that the government has once again squandered its credibility fighting the wrong dietary villains (fat and salt).

Let me just pluck this from the USDA press release announding their new dietary guidelines last year (my emphasis):

The new 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans focus on balancing calories with physical activity, and encourage Americans to consume more healthy foods like vegetables, fruits, whole grains, fat-free and low-fat dairy products, and seafood, and to consume less sodium, saturated and trans fats, added sugars, and refined grains.

Their lead villain, sodium, is at best one of the Joker's lesser henchmen. Saturated and trans fats deserve a back seat to sugar, sugar, sugar and refined grains.

 

Comments

[Melinda Romanoff]

Ig-

I'm convinced that one's a fairy tale.

[narciso]

As is the notion that Holder was persuaded by
Hitchens 'volunteer' waterboarding, of course
this brings up the image from Strangelove;
'there's no fighting in the War Room;

[matt]

He also doesn't return pens when he signs bills!

[Clarice]

My brother in law is going to be in a Luntz focus group in Wisconsin tonight. He's a big Walker supporter. Doesn't know what show. Guess I'll have to break my no TV string.

[narciso]

If it's Luntz, it's more likely than not, Hannity,

[Rick Ballard]

Remember "unexpectedly"?

It's back.

Back to back declines in factory orders suggest the flesh wounds may be deeper than previously thought.

[NK]

MelR/Ig-- 2 Stuyvesantians (Holder '69/Axelrod '72) dukin' it out in a cabinet meeting? Not likely-- especially Axelrod, a sniveling nerd. I re-read the Holder profile in the NYT after the 2008 election-- to Holder the world is forever East Elmhurst Queens and Selma 1963. He is truly a racialist.

[narciso]

The crop report indicates just a touch of frost;

“There seems to be a bit of a downshift in business investment,” Guy Berger, an economist at RBS Securities Inc. in Stamford, Connecticut, said before the report. “If we see a significant slowing of demand from where we are right now, that’s going to put a hurdle on how fast manufacturing can go.”

[pagar]

rse, this may explain the disappearing info.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2150281/REVEALED-Hundreds-words-avoid-using-online-dont-want-government-spying-you.html
--------------------------------------------
Narciso, I doubt if many life insurance companies are willing to write policies on Cuban politicians.

[Sue]

Shannon Bream tweet:

BREAKING: NO health care decision or SB1070 decision from Sup Ct today - next round of opinions due Monday, June 11th

[Melinda Romanoff]

Rick-

It looks like the "Fiscal Cliff", aka Obama's Historic, Largest Ever Tax Hike, has inspired most to turn into alligator arms regarding the economy.

David Ricardo reaches out from the grave and taps iBama on the shoulder.

[Jim Ryan]

Boortz just announced he's retiring at the end of this year.

[narciso]

What does that even mean, someone unlike Ogden or Perelli, that wasn't a Covington Partner, because the minder from Leahy's staff was certainly on board.

[narciso]

So a spicier gumbo than usual;

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/06/04/poll-romneys-favorable-rating-jumps-but-obama-still-more-popular/

[Jane]

Can someone explain the Bilderburg thing to me? I keep seeing it, but everything I read starts in the middle of the story.

[Jane]

Alan Colmes is replacing Boortz - and I was available! I'm shocked!

[Ignatz]

Heh.
Even Juan Williams thinks Mitt planting a mole is the only explanation for the nuclear Wintour ad.
When we see Barry's jug ears popping up through the hatch on a tank turret we'll know the mole's work is done.

[Captain Hate]

I hope everyone got to see Rondo call out the 2 punks from Miami during his half-time interview. Go Boston!!!!!

As much as I hate the Celtics (God spoke to me in a dream last night and told me that all you Celtics and Tiger Woods fans are all going straight to Hell; so you've been warned) I didn't see anything wrong with what he said. In fact I thought it was pretty honest to point out that those two idiots create scoring opportunities by their whining.

[Jim Ryan]

Is that TV, Jane? I only listen to Boortz on radio. Herman Cain is replacing him there. Yes, Boortz is a jerk. But he makes some good points now and again.

[Thomas Collins]

Jane, the talking point is that Bilderberg meetings bring together leading Americans and Europeans for discussions on weighty topics, such as the international finance implications of states' monetary and fiscal policies, the appropriate role of the European Central Bank, and foreign policy matters. What really goes on is self-important, sanctimonious members of what Angelo Codevilla described as the Ruling Class tut-tut about the diffciulties they have dictating the way things must be to the lesser enlightened folks.

[Porchlight]

Been out of town and am way late to the party. Belated happy birthday to little Iggy and little TK!

[Thomas Collins]

CH, don't I get a dispensation from God for following the Cavs, even trekking out to the old Richfield Coliseum, during the Ted Stepien era?

[Captain Hate]

TC, you'll have to take that up with God. It might help but I can't make any promises because he seemed pretty upset after yesterday.

[Dave (in MA)]

Couple of new threads, including one about the Celts.

[narciso]

'See this is why we can't have nice things' btw, that Leavitt bit comes from Politico,
so I'm still chalking it to coincidence and not enemy action,

[rse]

So bilderberg is like the Club of Rome or Budapest or Madrid?

pagar-it was a very specific search of a policy that once you are aware of it, really blows the whistle on a major enforcement mechanism. Most of the papers were the damning mtgs every 2 years or so. The 2 I zeroed in on were clearly on non-US servers. The authors who had been in mtgs we would not have been invited to were matter of factly explaining goals and mechanisms and how every tning relates.

The kind of thing I like to have before I anger anybody with power.

[narciso]

Pretty much, what was the topic, maybe it's archived somewhere else.

[MarkO]

Does Romney owe that little weasel Leavitt something for taking over the SLC Olympics?

[hit and run]

BTW -- yesterday was the fourth anniversary of the moment Obama's limitless faith in the profundity of his humility began slowing the rise of the oceans and healing the planet, giving us something to look back on generations from now and tell our children.

So how did you celebrate the big day and commemorate the moment?

[narciso]

Watching a movie, about those 'bitterest of clingers' the Cristeros.

[rse]

narciso-I had already downloaded and hard copied it initially. I just haven't had that happen before and it is essentially an official UN protocol once you know about it.

But it was not on one of their sites.

Initially I was just trying to confirm something to tell readers from OZ.

[Jane]

the talking point is that Bilderberg meetings bring together leading Americans and Europeans for discussions on weighty topics,

So it's the Agenda 21 people?

Harrumph ! Capn'!

[rse]

Mark O-the ed lab and some troubling networks mean that utah and Colorado vie for bad ed policies. Angry parents in both places never quite understanding why they are the guinea pigs.

[jimmyk]

MelR/Ig-- 2 Stuyvesantians (Holder '69/Axelrod '72) dukin' it out in a cabinet meeting?

FWIW, the homeless guy who got his face eaten off in Miami is also a Stuyvesant guy from the late 60s. Dare I say he's made a more positive contribution to society than those two?

[Rob Crawford]

The troll repeats a message five to ten times within a couple of minutes, and then changes to another short outrage, again repeated for the purpose of clogging the thread.

Through a chain of links, I found this quote from John Hayward of Human Events:

I should add that the most powerful cascades occur when an artificially imposed sense of isolation crumbles.

The left understands that, prior to Limbaugh, they had imposed a sense of isolation on conservatives.

Trolling is the online, in-the-street equivalent of their constant attempts to ban Limbaugh from radio -- they desperately want to silence conservatives, to prevent us from realizing there are others who agree with us. They want to make our forums so unpleasant, so clogged with BS and their abuse, that we abandon them.

They want to "shudder us into silence".

The Pisser Community College clown is just a slightly-less-threatening version of the Kimberlin Krew.

[henry]

Jane, I sent you an email (it may have bounced if your server has size limits).

[Janet]

The left understands that, prior to Limbaugh, they had imposed a sense of isolation on conservatives.

Wonderful point, Rob.

[Jane]

Henry,

Thanks for telling me. I find myself not looking at email too often these day. They are great!

[pagar]

rse, I was mainly pulling your leg with that link. However I do suspect that there are bureaucrats that are not thrilled with your efforts. Efforts which I support 100%.
I wish I had your ability and commitment.
Thanks for all your work.

[Mark Folkestad]

Rob, thanks for not noting that I erred in the news story that polluted Fox thread was on. I said Ghana, which was the earlier air crash, but I should have said Nigeria. Good quote about the crumbling world of the progs.

[Neo]

" ... the lady, who was obese with hypertension and a family history of heart disease, who also had premature atrial heartbeats on her pre-experiment electrocardiogram, developed a rapid heart beat irregularity called atrial fibrillation/flutter, which can be life threatening ..."

So the EPA put this lady with a known heart problem in danger.

Frankly, from the description of the experiment, we have no idea if the high levels of small particles in a chamber, perhaps she was claustrophobic, or her being obese, she may have had a craving to eat, that triggered her already known cardiac problem.

Next, I suppose, the Department of Education will conduct experiments, using subjects with known peripheral vascular disease, to see if corporal punishment is truly life threatening.

[franko]

I have to disagree with you on the trans fats. Actually, trans fats are terrible. The "trans" refers to the configuration of the carbon double bond in the aliphatic portion of the molecule. All fats found in nature have the "cis" configuration. THe "trans" configuration only arises during the partial hydrogenation of the cis double bonds. Think of the phrase "partially hydrogenated vegetable oil," for example. Since trans fats are not found in nature, no living thing can metabilize them. Even you. Every trans fat molecule you ever ingested was deposited in your fat and will be with you the rest of your life. So one reason people who love to chow down on those fries cooked in trans fats get obese is the accumulation of trans fat molecules in the body that will never be eliminated. Not for me!! i'm a libertarian but i draw the line at trans fats. Get rid of 'em!

[Beasts of the St. Regis]

Bilderberg is so important that they're staying at a Marriott! It's a very nice Marriott, but gee wiz...

[chemicals in food]

I do not understand how people can always be
so hard-headed. There is no grace in people these days.

People are increasingly mean-spirited and we cannot solve problems of any type until we can
cooperate. We can disagree, certainly, but we still are obligated to make decisions and get the freakin' job done.