If your skin is red and you're not a tomato

If your skin is red and you're not a tomato or a beetroot, it's very likely that you are sensitive to salt. I say this because salt sensitivity tends to cause skin-thinning and swollen veins. Then because of the thin skin the veins are effectively nearer to the skin's surface, and their red/purple/blue colour makes the skin appear flushed. 

 

I suggest that you try cutting down on salt and salty food. If you take up my suggestion, your high colour will be reduced and you will feel ever so much better! You will lose some excess weight/fluid retention, lower your blood pressure, reduce your risk of stroke, heart attack, cancer and diabetes, increase your energy and pep up your mental alertness. - "Bring it on!" I hear you cry! - And here's an added inducement to desalinate your diet: read "The Fat Man with the Red Face."

You can easily and safely reduce fat retention without using drugs, without reducing fat intake and without using liposuction

You can easily and safely reduce fat retention without using drugs, without reducing fat intake and without using liposuction. Read here about simple dietary measures (NOT dieting!) you can take to reduce fat retention and excess weight.

Why is adding salt to food more harmful than in former years?

Adding salt to food is more harmful than years ago because in our developed world, a greater proportion of people are now sensitive to salt than used to be the case. There is both a higher incidence of salt sensitivity and the salt sensitivity itself tends to be more severe. - One of the factors contributing to salt sensitivity is the fact that these days, in general, most children- even toddlers -eat a diet that is too high in salt. Salt is especially bad for children. High salt intake, such as from salty snacks like crisps and salted nuts and junk like Cheesestrings, is a major cause of child obesity. - See Children and Salt. And a taste for salt acquired in childhood is not very easy to 'unacquire'. So the habit of eating over-salted food literally feeds a growing number of related health problems including high blood pressure, obesity, type 2 diabetes, arthritis, stroke, heart disease, depression, dementia and so many more.

 

But at least as important a causative factor in salt sensitivity as high salt intake in childhood is the ever-growing ingestion of pharmaceutical drugs. Pharmaceutical drugs are being prescribed more and more in the UK (and even more still in United States) and other industrialised countries. Most of the prescriptions are for drugs that cause sodium and water/fluid retention and salt sensitivity. I don't mean that they are prescribed with the intention of causing sodium and water retention, but problems with salt are the most common undesirable side-effects of the most frequently prescribed rugs. These include antidepressants, anticonvulsants, antipsychotics, steroids, birth control medications and many more.

 

When you couple the over-prescribing of these dangerous salt-sensitising drugs with the highly-salted processed food that is the norm for a majority of consumers these days, it is assuredly a recipe for disaster both on a personal scale and in the wider social context. - I suggest that you try to avoid prescription drugs as far as you safely can and cut down on salt and salty food as much as you reasonably can. You'll lose some excess weight and improve your health and you'll feel sooo much better!

Eat less salt to reduce your risk of cancer

Big 'news' this week is that eating less salt lowers your risk of developing cancer, especially cancer of the stomach. See this BBC News report, where you will read: "Cutting back on salty foods such as bacon, bread and breakfast cereals may reduce people's risk of developing stomach cancer, according to the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF)." I put inverted commas round the word 'news' because my website has been informing people of this fact for many years and so it is hardly news. The usual establishment health message about salt reduction is that reducing salt intake reduces your risk of stroke, heart disease and heart attacks, and that it lowers high blood pressure, and while this health message is undoubtedly correct, it omits a multitude of other health benefits that result from eating less salt, most amazingly omitting the information that cutting salt intake is the fastest, safest way to lose excess weight. - In view of all the publicity about the prevalence and dangers of obesity, it's a real shame (I use the word advisedly) that this weight reduction information is not being promulgated by the public health brigade. Indeed, they almost seem to go out of their way to keep us in the dark about it. (The explanation for the weight loss is that salt reduction reduces the fluid retention which contributes to all overweight. Read about the groups of people that are particularly vulnerable to salt.)

You do not need to count calories or go hungry to lose weight

Dieting/counting calories/semi-starvation/constant hunger is not necessary to lose excess weight. You will lose weight fast and easily if you cut down on salt and salty food. - Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

You can also lose weight easily without hunger by changing to a Low Carb/High Fat (LCHF) way of eating. - Watch this engaging little video about it.

Sometimes 'just' just isn't 'le mot juste'

Sometimes 'just' just isn't 'le mot juste' (the right word). The most glaring instance of this, in my opinion, is when a member of that huge group - the Uninformed and Unthinking - intones that Big Untruth, namely that "Losing weight is easy. You just have to eat less and move more." - Just say NO to that nonsense. It isn't true. It doesn't work. - Here is a safe, easy way to lose excess weight: cut down on salt and salty food.

Leave it out! - The salt, that is.

If you want to lose excess weight, the fastest, simplest, safest way is to leave out the salt when you are cooking, give up sprinkling salt on your meal and cut down on the ready meals/fast food/processed food/pizzas/crisps and other highly-salted products that you eat. Home cooking of fresh food allows you to control the amount of salt that goes into a dish - as well as being more nutritious anyway. - Here's some information about the amount of salt/sodium in foods.

Fancy a Free, Safe Face Lift?

Fancy a Free, Safe Face Lift? - If your face seems to be sagging, with heavy, hanging folds of flesh, don't curse gravity and start to think about surgery to stretch and lift the skin and cut off excess. After all, lots of things can go wrong with surgery and it causes pain and costs a lot of money.

I invite you to consider this instead. - The heaviness of the hanging folds of skin on your face is principally because of excess fluid retention. This excess fluid is in the blood vessels - the veins or the tiny capillaries that are largely invisible except for some reddening of the skin. The excess fluid is excess water held there by some sodium retention/salt sensitivity.

If you seriously cut down on salt and salty food this will reduce the amount of excess water held in your blood vessels. (It just gets excreted in the urine.) So there will be less weight pulling your skin down. - An easy, completely safe face lift! - You will look younger and fitter, and you will feel so much better! - And as well as the 'face lift', you will have lost some of the excess fluid elsewhere on your body too, and so you will have lost some excess/surplus weight. - What's not to like!? - Lose excess weight by eating less salt! - Go on! - Try it!

Keep wishing your excess weight would simply fall off?

Do you keep wishing your excess weight would simply fall off? - Well there is a completely safe dietary change that has worked for many people. It doesn't involve going hungry or exercising, and, importantly, it doesn't involve taking drugs. It does involve seriously cutting down on salt and salty food. Read my Mensa article about my own experience of losing excess weight easily, and read about the Fat Man with the Red Face who also lost excess weight rapidly, easily and safely by following my advice. - Instead of just wishing, you could start today to lose that excess weight! - Go on! - Try it! - You'll feel so much better!

Happy Birthday, Michael Grade, Lord Grade of Yarmouth

Happy Birthday! Michael Grade, Lord Grade of Yarmouth. I read in the Radio Times that it is your 68th birthday today. I also read there that you are two stone (28 pounds) overweight. So I have a birthday present for you: it is the suggestion to cut down on salt and salty food, because this would result in your losing some of that excess weight. - Honestly, it would! - Go on! - Try it! - It will benefit your health in countless other ways too, including reducing your risk of a stroke, which I understand your father suffered.

Do you suffer from Ménière's Disease or Vertigo?

Do you suffer from Ménière's Disease or Vertigo? - If you seriously cut down on salt and food containing added salt you will notice a big improvement. This mainly entails eating fresh food you cook yourself, instead of processed foods, ready meals and takeaways, because these are usually very high in salt. See Foods High and Low in Salt/Sodium. Other health benefits you will experience from eating less salt are that you will lose some excess weight, reduce high blood pressure, have more energy, and feel much better. You will also reduce your risk of stroke, diabetes, coronary heart disease, heart attack, most cancers, dementia and many other degenerative illnesses and conditions.

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!

Discover fast, safe, effective tips for weight loss without using drugs, counting calories or going hungry

The fastest way to lose excess weight is to cut down on salt/sodium. This reduces water weight/fluid retention.

Other tips include 1) increasing calcium intake, which reduces fluid retention AND fat retention and 2) lowering carbs and increasing intake of healthy saturated fats.

3) Avoid prescribed pharmaceutical drugs as far as you can because they are a major, and increasing, cause of fluid retention/salt sensitivity. See weight gain from amitriptyline and other antidepressants and also weight gain from prescribed steroids, HRT and other prescription drugs.

4) Cut down on bread and processed food. Cook fresh foods instead.

5) Avoid artifical sweeteners, including aspartame, saccharine, sucralose, diet drinks and low calorie drinks.

World Heart Day Sept 26th

Sorry folks! - I missed it! - Apparently yesterday was World Heart Day. - Anyway it's not too late to remind you that the best thing you can do for your heart health is to minimise your intake of salt/sodium and salty food. This will also reduce your risk of stroke, type 2 diabetes, dementia, cancer, osteoporosis, and many other debilitating diseases. Here is some information about which foods are high in salt and should be avoided, etc. The extra bonus you get from cutting down on salt is that if you are overweight or obese, you will lose some of that excess weight...(o: - And please note that is without dieting, without hunger, without calorie-counting, without extra exercise (Exercise has many benefits but it is not an effective way to lose weight), without drugs and without adverse side-effects.

Researchers wrongly conclude that cutting down on meat will result in weight loss.

It's remarkable how often researchers draw false conclusions from accurate data. In this BBC News item we read that a study of "almost 400,000 adults found that eating meat was linked with weight gain, even in people taking in the same number of calories.

The strongest association was found with processed meat, such as sausages and ham, the Imperial College London team reported."

But instead of adopting the scientific approach and investigating why the processing of meat, such as sausages and ham, was so significant, they have decided that their research "counters the theory that diets with high amounts of protein and low amounts of carbohydrate promote weight loss." - What nonsense! What arrant nonsense! Research is a waste of time and expense when such an illogical conclusion is drawn! - They also failed to follow the clue about the calories to its logical conclusion.

I suggest that they investigate the significance of salt/sodium intake on weight gain. It's high time somebody did! (High sodium content is the main difference between processed meat and fresh meat.)

How to lose excess weight safely and easily without bothering about calories at all.

See sodium in food.

Groups vulnerable to salt.

Drugs commonly used for heart failure and high blood pressure problems are linked to increased risk of cancer

BBC News reports that researchers have found a slightly increased risk of cancer associated with taking angiotensin-receptor blockers (ARBs). As usual, people are being advised not to stop taking the drugs, but to seek advice from their GP if they are concerned about this research finding.

There is a completely safe, drug-free way to reduce high blood pressure, reduce heart problems and lower your risk of stroke, diabetes and most cancers, and that is to cut down on salt and salty food. Cutting down on salt/sodium also reduces excess weight.

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

Dr Iain Brownlee and Prof Jeff Pearson of Newcastle University believe that seaweed may prove significant in reducing obesity. I don't.

The suggestion made by these researchers is widely reported today. See this BBC News report and this Press Release Could seaweed reduce obesity by reducing fat absorption? for example.

Their claim is that the addition of dietary fibre from alginate, one of the world’s largest commercially-used seaweeds, could reduce the amount of fat absorbed by the body by around 75%. Call me cynical, but my sceptical antennae are roused by the information that this seaweed is a highly commercial product. No doubt a number of food and drink companies are hoping to profit from this research.

Well, maybe alginate could significantly reduce the amount of fat absorbed by the body. I don't know. But whether it could or not is, I submit, largely irrelevant. Reducing fat intake does not reduce obesity, and low fat intake is not conducive to health.

Excess weight is caused by sensitivity to salt and NOT by overeating. - Sensitivity to salt leads to fluid retention and this sometimes leads on to fat retention. - Fluid retention (i.e. excess weight) is easily reduced by cutting down on intake of salt and salty food. Eating plenty of fruit and unsalted vegetables makes the fluid loss even speedier. These measures also reduce fat retention. In addition, fat retention can be reduced by increasing intake of calcium, magnesium and potassium.

And WHEN is someone in Government going to inform people that the most extreme cases of obesity - morbid obesity - are the result of taking prescription drugs incautiously prescribed, often in high dose, by doctors inadequately informed about their side-effects? - If we could have a Government initiative to curb the massive over-prescribing by doctors, that would reduce obesity very effectively indeed!

Here is the correct information:

Lose weight safely, 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, hunger 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

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

Appetite too big? Here's what to do:

Cut down on salt! - Salt stokes up your appetite.
Give up dieting, eat good healthy meals with plenty of protein and fat and fruit and fresh vegetables, and avoid salt and salty food. You will feel so much better!

Here is a page of information about foods high in salt/sodium (the foods to avoid) and those low in sodium and/or high in potassium (the foods that are better for people who are wanting to lose excess weight)
Sodium foods

You will lose excess weight easily, rapidly and safely, and you will have more energy. - Go on! - Try it! - You KNOW that counting calories and going hungry doesn't work...

Forget about calories! Lose weight by eating less salt! - Go on! - Just do it!

Reduce Risk of Steroid/Oestrogen/HRT-Induced Asthma by Lowering Salt Intake

Reduce Risk/Severity of Steroid/Oestrogen/HRT-Induced Asthma by Lowering Salt Intake. There is a common element here. Certain steroids, of which oestrogen is one, frequently cause weakened blood vessels/weight gain/sodium retention/water retention/sensitivity to salt, the result of which is that the veins become distended/swollen as blood volume increases, retaining extra sodium and water. Obviously this extra weight has many negative effects on health, e.g. tiredness from carrying extra weight around, increased appetite because of needing more energy to carry the extra weight and service the heavier body, greater demands on the heart and lungs and kidneys, etc.

You can reduce all of these problems by reducing your sodium intake. You will then excrete some of the excess sodium from your body, along with its accompanying water. You will lose weight swiftly and safely and you will find your breathing is easier and you will feel much better.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, osteomalacia, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, boost your lung function 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.

Sodium in foods

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Obesity drug, Reductil (Sibutramine), an appetite suppressant, is being withdrawn from use in UK because of risk of heart attack and stroke

BBC News reports that "the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency has told doctors to stop prescribing sibutramine and review its use in patients already taking it." And ""Pharmacists are asked to cease dispensing the medicine."

It has been used by 86,000 people in the past year. Since ALL obesity drugs are harmful and unnecessary, it makes me think things must be really bad for the MHPRA to ban its use.

If you are overweight/obese and wanting to lose some of your excess weight, do not turn to weight loss pills. They are neither safe nor effective. The safe, fast, easy way to lose excess weight is to minimise the amount of salt and salty food you eat, avoid dieting, eat plenty of fruit and unsalted vegetables, and make sure you have dairy calcium, e.g. milk and yoghurt, as part of your food intake.

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, boost your lung function 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

Sodium in foods

Fat retention and fat excretion: the importance of getting enough calcium.