Salt is unhealthy or healthy?

Curse and eyesight at the same time: salt should promote the development of cardiovascular diseases and at the same time protect against infections

03/25/2015

The „Salt in the soup“ makes many scientists grow gray hair. Galt Sodium chloride, so the chemical name of common salt, for a long time as an absolute health killer - it promotes high blood pressure and promote the development of cardiovascular diseases - recent research findings of a German-American team of scientists even prove a positive effect of the mineral important for survival. Accordingly, it protects against infections. The news agency „dpa“ talked to experts about salt.

There is a passionate discussion about salt
Those who eat a lot of salt through their diet increase their risk of hypertension, stroke and heart attack. In countless media reports, salt has been named health killer number one. At no time had people so deliberately dealt with their salt consumption as today, explains the physician Karl-Ludwig Resch, Managing Director of the German Institute for Health Research (DIG) in Bad Elster, to the news agency: „Ten years ago, salt was still more of an academic topic, now comes every few days a contribution to television. "Unfortunately, many of these reports treated the issue very passionately and not always objectively, and science is also arguing about the effects of table salt on humans. „Until you eventually become blind to other arguments, "said the physician.

The effects of salt on humans have not yet been fully clarified
But one thing is for sure: Not everything is known about the effects of salt. Today, however, sodium chloride is vital for humans. So it affects the water balance, the bone structure, the nervous system and digestion. Without salt, the fluid and nutrient balance in the cells would become unbalanced, disrupting the metabolism. Each person therefore has about 200 grams of salt in his body. This is also the reason for the salty taste of sweat or tears.

Animals like humans need salt for survival. „Sodium is the only substance in which animals themselves realize that they have a deficiency and specifically try to compensate for it, "says Hubert Spiekers, head of the Institute for Animal Nutrition and Feed Management at the Bavarian State Research Center for Agriculture, told the news agency Eat the earth or bite in wood if they are salt-deficient To provide sufficient salt for livestock, the mineral is added to the feed or offered as a lick.

Salt can protect against infections
At the beginning of March, the study results of a German-American research team caused a sensation. Jonathan Jantsch, a medical staff member at the Institute for Clinical Microbiology and Hygiene at the University Hospital Regensburg, and Jens Titze, University of Erlangen and Vanderbilt University, asked why the body stores salt when it is actually harmful to it.

In mice placed on a low-salt diet, the researchers observed that animals with sores on the skin stored similar amounts of salt as a high-salt diet. They suspected that salt was increasingly enriched in infectious tissue and could possibly support the immune system. As it turned out, the salt actually increases the defense of macrophages, white blood cells that destroy infectious agents by forming toxic substances.

„The study gives us a completely new look at the role of salt in the body, "says Jantsch. „A large amount of salt has been shown to increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and is associated with high blood pressure. But for the first time we have also discovered a potential benefit. "The researchers published their findings in the journal „Cell Metabolism ".

From what amount is salt harmful to health?
„There is no study from which it can reliably be concluded that salt consumption is harmful, "says Resch. „Salt is scientifically still a phantom. "In addition, it is difficult to consider the effect of salt without other dietary influences. „It is simply not possible to observe salt separately from these things, "he continues, referring to the negative as well as the positive effect of salt on his patients, but of course there are risk groups for which reduced salt intake makes sense be like people with hypertension.

On the other hand, the World Health Organization (WHO) makes specific recommendations on salt intake, as a significant reduction in the amount of salt could reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes and save millions of lives. According to the WHO, adults should not consume more than five grams of salt. At the moment, on average, humans take in twice as much food. (Ag)