One more health postulation that needs to be taken with a pinch of salt — that more salt, and not less, is actually the new normal. The latest expert opinion is a 180-degree turn on sodium chloride by a New York-based scientist, who argues that salt has been needlessly vilified by health experts and health monitoring entities. The author promotes intake of salt, saying there is no substantive evidence of its damaging effects.
Coming in the face of the decades-long lobbying by doctors, governments, health weather-vanes and assorted interested parties to get people to eat less salt and urge food manufacturers to make more healthy packaged products — and which seems to be turning the high-sodium tide somewhat — this pro-salt declaration may seem a bit counter-intuitive. When it comes to the world of health, there cannot be enough experts and this heightens the need for individuals to not get carried away by every new conclusion that carries the risk of forever confining them to a maze of uncertainty on health outcomes of every kind.
We live in an age defined by an extraordinary need to reinvent and reconstruct every aspect of living, and health is at the top of this wish list. So, surrounded by a surfeit of information, it is crucial to pick the grain from the chaff. Whether it is about salt, sugar, eggs, butter or any and every thing we eat, the key to good health, as the wise have always said, is moderation. Add to this an intuitive understanding of one’s physical, mental and emotional self, regular exercise and spiritual resilience, and it is not difficult to assure yourself of enjoying a life of fad-proof health.
