The many health benefits of avoiding salt and salty food

The many health benefits of avoiding salt and salty food include lowering high blood pressure, lowering your risk of heart disease, heart attack, stroke, type 2 diabetes, most cancers and dementia. It helps with asthma and other breathing problems, inadequate sleep, tiredness, depression, chronic pain, osteoporosis, varicose veins, arthritis, red face, failing memory, inability to concentrate - and so many more! - And that's apart from the benefit I usually write about, namely losing excess weight.

The thing is, pretty well every overweight or obese person loses weight very quickly when they seriously cut down on salt and salty food, and I did believe that it was every one of them. - But last night I heard from a guy in America who was very grateful to me for the advice on my website and blogs and has cut down on salt as a result of taking that advice. - I can't properly remember how long since he started avoiding salt, but I think it's something like a couple of weeks. He says he feels much more mentally alert and is feeling soooooo much better - just like I say will happen - but he hasn't lost any weight yet. So it seems that it's not correct that all overweight people lose weight rapidly, though I assure you that of the people who contact me about cutting down on salt, most of them are eager to tell me straight away that they are losing weight so easily and so fast, as well as all the other benefits, and the compliments they are receiving because they are looking so much better and their work performance has improved so much. Anyway, maybe with some people they get the other benefits first, and the weight loss takes more time.

If you are feeling better because of cutting down on salt but you are not yet losing weight, maybe you have a problem with sugar and other carbs. Not living in America I've not encountered the phenomenon of most food there containing not just salt, but loads of HFCS, High Fructose Corn Syrup, and other alien pretend-food, manufactured in laboratories and factories, loads of genetically modified crops/products, loads of hormone-contaminated and pesticide-contaminated frankenfood. Maybe all that 'food' that is so unsuitable for our species that lived for about 2.4 million years on plain, natural animal meat and its fat, plus some plants, and water (not coke! - and not diet coke!) does even more harm to Americans' body chemistry than the UK processed food does to us in the UK. Watch The Bitter Truth when you have 90 minutes to spare. And of course, Americans take even more pharmaceutical drugs than people in the UK, and these drugs do very, very great harm to your body's chemistry and physiology. See Amitriptyline and other drugs. See Prescribed Steroids, HRT and other drugs.

So as well as avoiding added salt/sodium, try low carb, high fat to help you with losing excess weight. - But make sure the fats you eat are good fats - fat from the meat of pastured animals, not from animals that have been fed on grain and hormones and pesticides and anti-biotics. Make sure the butter you eat is made from the milk of pastured cows. Don't ever eat margarine, or low-fat perversions of food. Don't eat oils like corn-oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, 'vegetable oil', etc. You want food that is as natural and unprocessed as possible: so cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil is good. - And don't diet or eat 'diet-foods' or 'slimming foods'. Just eat good, natural, nutritious food. - You will feel sooo much better!

Concerned about Animal Welfare? Access to pasture? Healthy food?

Concerned about Animal Welfare? Access to pasture? Healthy food? Then you may want to object to a proposed ‘mega-dairy’ in Lincolnshire, which if allowed to go ahead would be the largest dairy in the UK, with an initial herd of 3,770 cows to be increased to 8,100 when practicable. "Each cow would be expected to yield 10,000 litres of milk per year. These animals would be kept indoors for the majority of their lives, with little or no access to pasture." Read the Soil Association's webpage about it and how to submit an objection to it.

False Health Claims for Cheerios Violate Federal Law

Bloomberg reports that Cheerios are in trouble because of claiming to lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer.

I'd like to point out that Cheerios is extremely high in salt/sodium, and so for this reason too, cannot possibly be regarded as a healthy food.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it!

See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

I've just been watching the River Cottage programme featuring autumn food on Channel 4 TV

http://www.channel4.com/food/on-tv/river-cottage/
On this webpage there are links to the recipes of some of the dishes featured in the programme.

In this programme Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall makes some unusual dishes using beetroot, cooks a lot of beans, catches and eats some small crabs, organises a Duck Fair, shows us sausages being made, and produces his version of a Chinese duck dish.

It's always worth watching his River Cottage programmes. - He goes in for cooking delicious, healthy food from scratch, not heating up processed junk and pretending it's real food. If you want a healthy body, feed it real food, not junk.

In case you do not already know, processed ready meals are usually extremely high in salt and low in good nutrition, so they tend to make a lot of people fat.

Obesity is caused by salt sensitivity leading to fluid retention and thus to excess weight. There are various causes of salt sensitivity, the most dangerous of which is the reckless prescribing of certain groups of drugs by doctors who have not familiarised themselves with the side-effects of some of the powerful drugs they prescribe - drugs like steroids, ant-depressants and anti-psychotics and certain pain-killers and other drugs.

Giving up dieting, reducing salt intake and eating plenty of good food including plenty of fruit and (unsalted) vegetables and dairy calcium in milk and/or yoghurt (not cheese, because it's salty) will ensure safe loss of excess weight.

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

prescribed steroids and HRT

vulnerable groups

How to Lose weight!

Children and Obesity

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

See FAT RETENTION

I watched Part 2 of Iain Stewart's BBC2 series "Earth: the Climate Wars" this evening (about Global Warming)

Dr Iain Stewart is an academic geologist who is also an excellent presenter of TV programmes involving geology. Here is a link to a BBC site about these "Earth: The Climate Wars" programmes - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00djvq9

I warmed to Dr Stewart years ago when on one of his geology programmes he mentioned en passant that we do not need to eat ANY salt at all because there is sufficient naturally present in food (and I don't mean because a food manufacturer has already added some). - So he, a geologist, spoke more sense than any doctor I have ever heard speak about salt intake. - And he wasn't scared of telling the truth about salt...(o: - I suppose this is because as a geologist he has a long perspective back in time - vast periods of time - and knows well that our early ancestors did not eat salt other than what was naturally present in their natural food and water, and since that is the low sodium intake with which our bodies evolved, it is the natural healthy intake for our species.

Well tonight he was giving views for and against whether global warming is a fact (and concluded that it is a fact) and on what causes global warming - and he concluded that human activity contributes to it. - And he also drew our attention to some scientific fraud that has been going on, and some cynical chicanery that has also been going on with the intention of constantly stirring up doubt and debate rather than allowing the facts to be accepted - parallels here of the currently promulgated misinformation about obesity and the misinformation about salt.

There are 14 days in which you can watch the first two programmes on that BBC link in my first paragraph.

Whatever the cause/s of the global warming, there is 'revolutionary' information and practical measures that would in part help with the problem of global warming on my webpage here - http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html (The website does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions

Food watchdogs are to clamp down on the use of unhealthy trans fats in fast food, biscuits and cakes.

Food watchdog wants to trim use of trans fats

from the Telegraph:

"Food watchdogs are to clamp down on the use of unhealthy trans fats used in fast food, biscuits and cakes.

The board of the Food Standards Agency is reviewing its advice to the Government on the health impact of artificial trans fats - chemically-altered vegetable oils that are more harmful than any other form of fat."

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke and heart problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ami.html

vulnerable groups

How to Lose weight!

Children and Obesity

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

Wider implications of the flawed theory that excess calorie intake causes obesity

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

Why not try a low-salt marinade instead of your usual one?

See Low-salt marinades make for great grilling

Lose weight and improve your health in many ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html

vulnerable groups

How to Lose weight!

Children and Obesity

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

A good news story about healthy hot meals in some rural schools: - set up by Tim Crabtree and Local Food Links

Recipe for success

Extract from Guardian article:

"As Dorset this week stages a celebration of local food - a reflection of the growing interest in local, organic produce that began with the rise of farmers' markets - the man who helped kick-start this trend has turned to something more significant than catering for the rural rich.

Tim Crabtree set up the West Dorset Food and Land Trust, which initiated the farmers' markets, but now runs Local Food Links, a community-benefit society that cooks and delivers hot meals to schools around Bridport.

Crabtree says the impetus behind Bridport's LFL was that while visitors and retired people could afford to shop at farmers' markets, ordinary working people struggled. "We live in a low-wage economy, and so our remit has been to address the fact that local and organic food has become an expensive niche market."

Almost two years ago, in response to the Jamie's School Dinners series on TV, the government announced that all schools should serve hot meals by September 2008. But amid all the fuss about "scrotum burgers" and Turkey Twizzlers, one fact was overlooked: 25 years ago, under the last Conservative government, all the primary schools in Dorset got rid of their kitchens.

The county council thought microwavable ready meals would be the only option if schools were to reinstate hot lunches, but companies refused to tender for the job, saying they were unable to do it profitably due to the large number of small schools spread across such a rural area.

LFL stepped in, initially offering hot, freshly made soup to two primary schools. Ruth Clench, headmistress of Bridport county primary school, says: "There was a really good take-up, and a superb part of the experiment was that some of the children helped make it. That persuaded other children to try it." Laura Wood, whose daughters attend the school, says: "Before, my kids had only ever eaten Heinz tomato soup, and it encouraged me to make soup at home, too."

Encouraged by the success of the soup kitchen, Crabtree expanded the operation in April to provide hot meals two days a week to eight schools. He hopes that by Easter next year all eight schools will be supplied with hot meals five days a week. The target is 95,000 meals, which would take the area to the current national average of a 40% take-up.

What has helped in getting children to accept a wide range of vegetables is that they get involved in choosing them. LFL holds tasting sessions for the children and their parents, pays close attention to their comments, and also sneaks extra vegetables into their meals - for instance, by pureeing butternut squash and adding it to tomato sauce (a Jamie Oliver recipe)."

Lose weight and improve your health in many ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

vulnerable groups

How to Lose weight!

Children and Obesity

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection
See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

I watched ITV's Tonight with Trevor McDonald this evening - entitled Food for the Brain

The ITV website says: "Children and teachers at a previously under-performing school discover if a radical, year-long experiment overhauling their diet and fitness has yielded improvements in the classroom."

What a pleasure it was to see how improved nutrition benefited the these primary schoolchildren! - The concerted efforts of headmistress, teachers, mothers and the children themselves really did pay off...(o: - Children ate healthier school meals or took healthier packed lunches (in particular, containing fresh fruit) to school. Also their mothers made great efforts to provide them with healthier meals at home. - In particular they cooked, rather than just giving their children ready meals. - Also they sat with their children at the table to eat, instead of the children eating convenience food while sitting watching the TV.

The changes were dramatic and most impressive: - happier children, better behaved children, who were better able to give attention and to concentrate, better able to cooperate and play with their siblings, reading better, scoring higher in school tests, especially maths. - And the mothers were so happy at the improvements and so justifiedly proud of themselves for the results of the work they had put in.

Personally, I don't believe in ADHD and such medical labels for a putative disease that some of the children were supposed to suffer from, and for which no doubt some drug-happy doctors would want to prescribe ritalin. - It simply stands to reason that if you do not feed a body proper food, then both the body and the mind will perform sub-optimally.

The best 'doctor' is good food/good nutrition...(o:


Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
How to Lose weight!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods
and Associated health conditions

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free...

Healthy cooking methods for vegetables

How to keep your vegetables healthy - Telegraph

Extract:

"GENERAL RULES FOR COOKING VEGETABLES

TOMATOES
PEPPERS
GARLIC
BROCCOLI"

If you avoid adding salt to the vegetables they will be even healthier and better for you.

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

I received an email today from someone who wrote to tell me she has lost 7 pounds in 11 days by following the salt reduction advice on my website.

I received an email today from someone who wrote to tell me she has lost 7 pounds in 11 days by following the advice on my website - i.e. to cut down on salt/sodium and eat plenty of fruit and fresh vegetables. - She was so excited!

She wrote to ask me how long the weight loss would go on and how much would she lose but I couldn't tell her that; it's very individual and depends on lots of factors. But it's very important to give up dieting/slimming and to avoid all the dieting junk food and to eat plenty of good, healthy real food.

This is part of what I wrote back:

"You must make sure always to eat plenty of food and never count calories or diet again, so that you keep the veins as strong as possible. And avoid diet cokes and that sort of junk. Your body needs food; it doesn't need non-food stuff and artificial sweeteners and a load of strange chemicals. Dieting is very harmful - and as you know, it doesn't work and it isn't necessary.

I saw some respectable scientific research recently that indicates that extra calcium in your food intake can assist with healthy weight reduction. The researchers recommended eating some low fat yoghurt each day as a healthy way to get this extra calcium. (Not that VERY low fat yoghurt with all the added chemical junk and sweeteners - just the ordinary low fat yoghurt.)"

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Focus on parents in new anti-obesity education campaign.

Parents are focus of new childhood anti-obesity education campaign

Extract:

"Parents in families where both parents work think they have little time to prepare fresh food - the time spent preparing meals dropped from two hours in 1980 to 20 minutes in 2000. If they have little time with their children in the evening, they do not want to argue over food.

Peer pressure, for instance over school packed lunches, leads to a cycle where children reject healthy food and parents appease them with crisps and snacks and use sweets and biscuits "as a substitute for lack of time together or a reward"."

Here is an extract from my webpage http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/children.html

"When children become fat it is essentially because they are eating salty food. Children are especially vulnerable to salt because of their small size and small blood volume, and because their blood vessels are weaker than those of adults. Salt, and the water it attracts to it, can more easily distend weak blood vessels than fully mature ones. The resulting increase in blood volume and other fluid retention results in weight gain, as well as higher blood pressure and many other undesirable consequences. The smaller the child, the less salt they should have - and a baby, of course, should have no salt at all. - Babies can die if they are fed salty food.

Because children have much smaller bodies than adults it would be best if they had no more than half as much salt as adults. Most children, however, have much more than this because they eat so many snacks and instant foods. Just one cheeseburger, for instance, contains almost double the recommended daily salt maximum for children. There are high amounts of salt in packet soups, instant noodles, ketchup and sauces, sausages, burgers and savoury snacks. Fat children will lose weight fast if they eat less salt. And even faster still if they eat plenty of fresh fruit and unsalted vegetables, because these are rich in potassium, which helps to displace sodium from the body."

Exercise and dieting do not reduce obesity. - See http://aboutsalt.blogspot.com/2006/11/do-you-believe-that-obesity-is-caused.html

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)