🚀 go-pugleaf

"DonH" <donlhumphries@bigpond.com> wrote in message 
news:ugkwo.179$gM3.26@viwinnwfe01.internal.bigpond.com...
> Seems there's been a campaign to reduce salt intake in the diet of humans, 
> as too much may cause or precipitate heart attack.
>  True, too much salt may be bad for you, but what is too much?  When we 
> perspire, salt is present in the water of our sweat, and replacement is 
> warranted.
>  Fat, like salt, is also frowned on by diet faddists, yet Eskimos exist 
> (or did) on a diet of nothing but fish, and seal meat.
>  Heart attack and arteriosclerosis are more likely in old age, but can be 
> precipitated at any time by excess cholesterol in the veins and arteries, 
> like clogging of a plumbing system.
>   And daily stress and tension can cause restriction of the arteries, etc, 
> so cholesterol can't escape, leading to high blood pressure, stroke, heart 
> attack, etc.  Calm, relaxed, and lazy folk are less prone to heart attack 
> than tense active executive types, always on the go.  But this type of 
> analysis doesn't fit in with the Work Ethic, and is seldom mentioned.
>    Salt?  I'll continue to put it on my cold meat and salad, add it to my 
> porridge, and so on.  A short life, but a merry one?
>

# All, as may be.  Salt is an essential part of the human diet, and is much 
valued in inland African and other nations where it tends to be deficient.
   Our blood plasma is a saline solution, but of a concentration supposedly 
same as our evolutionary ancestors (amphibians?), not of today's oceans. 
(Ocean salinity has increased over eons, due to leaching from land soil, and 
flow into oceans).
    However, if a person eats a sensible varied diet, of meat and other 
protein foods, bread or other carbohydrates, plus fresh fruit-n-vegs 
(vitamins, minerals, fibre), with liquids (preferably not alcohol) - then 
salt should be of minor concern.
    Quantity, of food consumed, is as important as quality.
    Iodised salt is a good idea, and helps avoids goitre.
    Any study on possible deleterious effect of too much curry and chilli?
    As for Eskimos and other carnivores, they don't need to eat as much as 
herbivores, to get same energy and tissue-repair effect.  A vegan diet can 
be dangerous, as we humans, evolutionarily, are omnivores, according to 
dentition and gut, and vegans could miss out on protein.