Latest Salt Warning: Salty Sausages

Latest Salt Warning: Salty Sausages. - CASH (Consensus Action on Salt and Health) researches the levels of salt in processed foods, and this report today in the Daily Mail focuses on the levels of salt in different brands of sausages. While no one, I suspect, would look to sausages to provide a healthy low salt meal, there is a surprisingly large variation in the salt levels of different brands, and the Daily Mail report carries a helpful chart which is far easier to read than the on-pack labels. Musk's Newmarket Sausages look very well worth avoiding if you want to keep your salt intake down!

Many people are sensitive to salt, and most of them do not know that they are. People who are sensitive to salt get troubled by fluid retention and usually have high blood pressure. These health problems and many more, including obesity, can be easily and safely reduced by cutting down on salt and salty food. You can check out which foods are high in salt and which are not, by visiting my Sodium in Foods webpage. - Lose weight and improve your health by eating less salt! - Go on! - Try it! - You'll feel so much better!

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.

Processed meat risks health, studies suggest; fresh meat OK.

BBC News reports that a Harvard University team which looked at studies involving over one million people from 10 countries found just 50g of processed meat a day increased the risk of heart disease and diabetes, while there was no such risk from unprocessed meat, such as beef, lamb or pork. They posit that the difference may be explained by the salt and preservatives added to processed meats (like bacon, sausages, salami and other luncheon meats).

Well I've been saying for years on my website and in my blogs that salt intake and dodgy added chemicals in processed 'foods' promote degenerative disease and obesity.
See Sodium in foods.

Are Pork Pies to Blame For the Stockton-on-Tees' Child Obesity Problems?

The Times reports that people in Stockton-on-Tees eat more pork pies than people elsewhere in the region, and also that the town was named as the country’s capital for childhood obesity in Department of Health figures released this week. The question arises as to whether there is a causal connection between these facts.

Well pork pies are very high in salt/sodium, as are all cured meats or foods containing cured meat, so I'd say that if many of the children in Stockton-on-Tees are eating pork pies then the pork pies are definitely contributing to the child obesity problem.

When children become fat it is because they are eating salty food like pork pies, sausages, bacon, crisps, takeaways, ready meals, etc. 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, can contain almost double the recommended daily salt maximum for children. There are high amounts of salt in packet soups, instant noodles, ketchup and sauces, burgers, hot dogs and savoury snacks.

Overweight children should not be put on a diet; dieting is harmful and unnecessary and does not usually result in weight loss. Once children start dieting it is often the beginning of a lifetime of yo-yo dieting and increasing weight and ill-health. And exercise has no effect on child obesity.

Fat children will lose weight fast if they eat less salt. And even faster if they eat plenty of fresh fruit and unsalted vegetables, because these are rich in potassium, which helps to displace sodium from the body.

Unfortunately bread contains a lot of salt and most families eat quite a lot of bread because of using it for sandwiches in packed lunches, and for toast, etc. Because of its high salt content bread is not a healthy food for little children or for anyone who is overweight. Some bread manufacturers have lowered the salt content of certain loaves, but most bread still usually contains 0.5g or more of sodium per 100g. This is too much. - Always check on the packet; look for the lowest sodium content.

Cheese is often recommended as being good for children because it contains calcium, but cheese is not really good for children because it has a high salt content. So don't give them a lot of it. Children can get plenty of calcium by drinking milk and by eating yogurt (but avoid the sort of yogurt that has lots of chemical additives).

There are no calories in salt - but if you cut down on salt you will easily lose weight. If you cut down on calories you will not lose weight.

Children and Obesity

FAT RETENTION

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods

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

breakfast cup of coffee and a muffin on the way to work contains a third of the recommended daily salt limit, a study has warned.

Breakfast of coffee and a muffin 'can contain high levels of salt'
article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"The worst offenders among those tested were a Starbucks Cinnamon Swirl, which contained 1.74g of salt, the equivalent of two rashers of bacon, and Costa's Raspberry and White Chocolate Muffin, which contained 1.71g.

But the study warns that a "healthy" home breakfast can also be high in salt.

Researchers found that those who kick-started the day with a bowl of cornflakes and two slices of toast with butter and Marmite took in half of their recommended daily salt limit, around 2.8g.

Those who ate the same meal with jam instead of Marmite still took in a third of their daily salt limit, around 1.8g.

A full English breakfast can contain more than the daily recommended limit of salt, the study also found.

A fry-up which includes two sausages, two rashers of bacon, two slices of black pudding, one fried egg, mushrooms, baked beans, a tomato and one slice of toast with butter, contains around 6.1 g of salt.

Carrie Bolt, a nutritionist with CASH, said: "When eating breakfast away from home, customers shunning greasy spoons for coffee shop breakfasts could actually be eating more salt and would be better off choosing lower salt options from the greasy spoon menu."

Doctors recommend that salt intake be limited because it can push up blood pressure levels, increasing the risk of heart disease or stroke."

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.)

How to Lose weight!

Children and Obesity

See Sodium in foods

vulnerable groups

See amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

Even supermarket staples can contain terrifying levels of harmful additives, endangering the health of our nation's children

I've only come across this article today, so apologies that it was published back in January this year.

A killer on the shelves: the shocking truth about children's food
Article in the Independent

Extracts:

1) Baked beans and beef-burgers; sausages and cereals; pizzas and pita breads are among the most innocuous sounding items we might throw into a supermarket trolley: lunchbox staples and dinner-time essentials that many parents rely upon to keep their offspring happy and their wallets not entirely depleted.

But these foods have a hidden catch, an ingredient whose danger – despite being well-documented by health experts – is still not recognised by the average consumer. Although small amounts of this mineral are essential to life, we take so much that it has become an insidious killer, responsible for more deaths than wars, traffic accidents or illegal drugs. And yet it is kept in kitchens across the country – next to the pepper.

Salt, the secret killer of processed food, is everywhere. We eat two-thirds more of it than we should. Every time we tuck into a sandwich, or a packet of crisps – sometimes even cheese – there is a good chance we are raising our blood pressure.

2) With encouragement from the FSA, manufacturers have been reducing the amount of salt in food for the past 10 years. [I find that a questionable statement. - The FSA was not even in existence 10 years ago. It did not get started till 2000. And its salt advice, to the best of my recollection and knowledge did not start till 2003.]

3) Professor Graham MacGregor, Cash's chairman and professor of cardiovascular medicine at St George's Hospital in London, urged manufacturers to step up their efforts to take salt out of food. "Anything that lowers blood pressure in childhood is likely to translate into lower levels of blood pressure in adult life, with reduced risk of developing heart disease and stroke," he said.

"And it's not just heart attacks and strokes that are caused by a high-salt diet. Too much salt is also linked with stomach cancer and osteoporosis and can aggravate the symptoms of asthma.

"If they really cannot reduce the salt content in food eaten by children to reasonable levels, perhaps they should consider ceasing production." [My emphasis.]

4) The British food and drink industry is keen to show that it is acting responsibly. An analysis of 100,000 products for the Food and Drink Federation by market research firm TNS Worldpanel showed that, in the past 12 months, 2,000 tons of salt had been removed from crisps, breakfast cereals, bread, home cooking products, and canned goods. Peter East, a director of TNS Worldpanel, said the average consumer purchased 0.3 per cent less salt in 2007.

That's a laugh! - "Peter East, a director of TNS Worldpanel, said the average consumer purchased 0.3 per cent less salt in 2007." - 0.3% less! - A few grains! - Good grief! Is he joking?

High salt intake in childhood causes child obesity. - It's disgraceful that this hugely important fact is not published by the obesity 'experts' and the experts on high blood pressure.

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

A food additive (the colouring, E128) found in some sausages and burgers could trigger cancer, food safety specialists have warned.

Eating sausages 'could cause cancer' - Telegraph

Extract:

"A food additive found in some sausages and burgers could trigger cancer, food safety specialists have warned.

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) panel on food additives and flavourings yesterday recommended that the colouring E128 should no longer be considered safe for human consumption.

It released a statement describing E128, also known as Red 2G, as a "safety concern". The Food Standards Agency (FSA) will today hold a meeting with food manufacturers to establish how widely it is used in products sold in Britain. Many large brands have recently been trying to remove additives and artificial colourings from their meat products. For example, in May Asda pledged to remove artificial colours or flavours, hydrogenated fat or flavour enhancers from its 9,000 own label products by the end of this year.

However, E128 is still commonly used, especially in economy sausages and burgers."

You are possibly in more danger of developing cancer from the high sodium content of sausages if you are sensitive to salt/suffer from fluid retention - i.e. if you are overweight or obese or are taking certain powerful drugs on prescription. - See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/conditions.html

and foods high and low in sodium

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

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

Researchers claim that red meat 'raises risk of breast cancer'

Red meat 'raises risk of breast cancer' - Telegraph

Extracts:

"Eating even small amounts of red meat daily can increase the risk of breast cancer by 56 per cent in older women, according to British research published today.

Researchers were quite surprised that only 2oz of red meat a day appeared to have an effect
As little as 2oz (57g) of beef, lamb or pork a day showed an effect. Post-menopausal woman who ate larger amounts, 3.6oz (103g), of processed meats such as sausage, bacon, ham or pies had an increased risk of 64 per cent.

Even younger, pre-menopausal women had a slightly raised risk if they ate red meat daily, the study from the University of Leeds found.

The research, led by Prof Janet Cade, a professor of nutritional epidemiology and public health, involved 35,000 women aged between 35 and 69 who have been followed for nearly eight years."

"The researchers took into account smoking, weight, fruit and vegetable intake, class, education and use of hormone replacement therapy.

"The findings are robust. Whatever we adjusted the data for we could still find an association," Prof Cade said yesterday. The study, in the British Journal of Cancer, says: "Women consuming the most total [all kinds] meat, red meat and processed meat were at the highest risk compared with non-meat eaters, although red and processed meat were only statistically significant post-menopausally"."

"Prof Cade said one reason why red meat may contribute to a raised risk of breast cancer is that it is a rich source of saturated fat. The women who ate the most meat were also more likely to be fatter."

"Henry Scowcroft, of Cancer Research UK, said: "Our best dietary advice to women worried about their breast cancer risk is to maintain a healthy body weight by taking regular exercise and avoiding large regular portions of fatty foods like red and processed meat, and excess alcohol. It's also important to be breast aware, and to go for screening when invited by your GP."

Dr Alexis Willett, of the charity Breakthrough Breast Cancer, said: "We encourage all women to eat a balanced diet, limit alcohol consumption, exercise regularly and keep a healthy weight to maintain general good health.""

I have quoted rather extensively from this article because when advice is given the amount of coverage that this has had today - radio, TV, newspapers - it is likely to be very influential. And this research must have cost a huge amount of money - 35,000 women over a period of eight years. - Despite its cost, and despite the publicity given to it, I am not remotely persuaded that its findings can be given much credence and I am confident that the conclusions the researchers have drawn are flawed. I'll explain why I am of this opinion.

Neither the researcher nor the people quoted as commenting on the research findings makes any mention of salt (or sodium) as far as I can see, even though Prof Cade says: "The women who ate the most meat were also more likely to be fatter." - But people are made fatter by the conjunction of salt sensitivity and the intake of salt, not by eating red meat as such. It looks to me as though the red meat eaters may possibly have used a bit more salt than the other women in the study. - The processed meat in the study would have had salt added by the food manufacturers, and that added salt would of course have increased the weight of the women who were sensitive to salt, and so would have increased the risk of their getting breast cancer.

The research would have been much more useful if levels of salt/sodium intake had been among the parameters considered, but it does not appear to have been.

Obesity is caused by fluid retention which in turn is usually caused by salt sensitivity. And obesity is the main individual contributory factor in the causation of most cancers. - So in my opinion, the best dietary measure anyone can take to lower their risk of developing cancer in general, and breast cancer in particular, is to lower their salt intake to the lowest they can manage.

This page lists many of the adverse health conditions that are caused or exacerbated by salt sensitivity, and cured or made less severe by cutting down on salt intake, and by eating plenty of fresh vegetables and fruit - http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/conditions.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.)

Do you believe that obesity is caused by over-eating - by consuming too many calories? - I invite you to consider the evidence and think again!

Do you believe that obesity is caused by over-eating - by consuming too many calories - and/or taking too little exercise? - I invite you to consider the evidence and think again!

Here is an extract from the UK Government's official statistics on page http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=1329:

"The prevalence of obesity in England has increased markedly among both adults and children since the mid 1990s. In 2002 it was similar for both sexes; the rate for boys and girls was 17 per cent and for adults was 23 per cent. In 1995 the equivalent figures were 10 per cent for boys and 12 per cent for girls, 15 per cent for men and 18 per cent for women.

There is no evidence that the average calorific intake or consumption of foods rich in fat and added sugar has increased in the UK since the mid 1980s. Men aged 19 to 64 in 2000/01 reported a daily energy intake of approximately 2,323 kcal (a reduction of 6 per cent since 1986/87). Women in the same age groups reported 1,642 kcal, a reduction of 3 per cent.

Reductions over the same period were also observed in the contribution of total fat to total energy intake (from 38 to 34 per cent in men and from 39 to 34 per cent in women) and saturated fat (from 15 to 13 per cent in men and from 17 to 13 per cent in women)."

So people are eating significantly FEWER calories and LESS fat, yet obesity has INCREASED MASSIVELY!!!

Surely the logical deduction from those facts is not that obesity increases because of eating more calories! - So where is the evidence for the constant insistence by medical 'experts' that obesity is caused by over-eating and will be reduced by eating less? - Answer: - THERE ISN'T ANY!!!

The research evidence is that when obese people try to lose weight by following the 'expert' advice they usually GAIN weight...)o:

Calorie counting and advice about increasing exercise and reducing fat and calorie intake to reduce obesity are ineffective, counter-productive and often damaging. - See the article in the British Medical Journal of November 2003 BMJ article for actual research on what happens when this advice is followed! - Over 800 obese adults were put on energy deficit diets, given diet sheets and plenty of instruction and help from trained staff, and apparently, visited fortnightly for a year, at the end of which they had GAINED weight! This mirrors the real experience of obese people, viz. - dieting makes you fat.

It is commonly accepted now, except by the 'experts', that less than 5% of dieters actually lose weight, and most gain weight as a result of dieting. - Even the ones who manage to lose weight do not usually improve their health. - See Guardian article for a report in The Guardian of Monday, June 27th 2005. It is about a huge research study of nearly 3000 people over a period of 18 years. The study found that overweight people who diet to reach a healthier weight are more likely to die young than those who remain fat. It also found that dieting causes physiological damage that in the long term can outweigh the benefits of the weight loss.

Contributing to the increase in obesity we have the widespread prescribing of steroids and HRT and other drugs which cause weight gain, and the failure of doctors to adhere to the protocols connected with the prescribing and monitoring of steroids. But pre-eminent, in my opinion, is the catastrophically damaging calorie-reduction advice that continues to be given despite such a wealth of evidence that it is bad advice.

Another possible factor is the increase in the amount of oestrogen in the water table.

Now before you engage in the conditioned reaction of attributing the solution to this apparent paradox as being the exercise factor, I invite you read about research on this:

'Exercise has 'little effect on childhood weight' - reported HERE in the Guardian. According to the findings of research carried out by Glasgow University, getting four-year-olds to engage in three extra 30 minute sessions of exercise a week had no effect on whether they were obese or not. "Despite rigorous implementation, we found no significant effect of the intervention on physical activity, sedentary behaviour or body mass index," concluded the researchers.

More than 500 nursery school children were recruited for the study, which compared children who exercised three times a week with children left to their own devices.

DESPITE THEIR OWN FINDINGS, the researchers deny that this research means that exercise is completely ineffective in preventing obesity! - They say that "the problem of overweight children needs to be addressed on several fronts at the same time, not just through exercise."

So the researchers are so conditioned by the calorie explanation of obesity (for which there is no supporting evidence) that they deny the results of their own research! Their conclusion is therefore not science; it is mere conjecture...)o:

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 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."