FORTUNE: New studies say too little salt might be as harmful as too much. What is the food industry supposed to do with this information? Take it with a grain of…
…Three studies were published. Two of them concluded that underconsumption of salt might be harmful. A third basically matched the findings of earlier research, showing that cardiovascular risk rises with increases in sodium consumption of over 2 grams per day — the maximum recommended by the World Health Organization (that’s the equivalent of 5 grams of salt, since salt is about 40% of salt). The first two have drawn criticism because of the methodology used, but those are the ones the media picked up on — which is not surprising given that the media love counterintuitive science stories. The third study was far more rigorous and far less assailable.
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All three studies are certainly legitimate — peer reviewed and published in a prestigious journal. And there’s not much science behind how what researchers called “aggressively low” salt targets might affect human health. But the first two were observational and found only an association between such low sodium intake and cardiovascular risk, not a cause-and-effect relationship. More study is surely needed, but none of the research published last week counters what is the overwhelming (though not universal) scientific consensus: that in general we eat too much salt and that it poses health risks, particularly hypertension… (more)
