The War Against Salt

SEE HERE I'm definitely a saltaholic. I salt everything and put up with the usual snide remarks from the folks that are bought into the "salt is bad for you" mantra. The problem is that salt is also an essential nutrient that promotes all kinds of bodily functions. I was quite amused by this article which shows that the big evidence against salt was feeding rats the equivalent in human terms of 500 grams of salt a day. Well why wouldn't you expect some sort of adverse effects from abusing rats that way? I remember some congressional testimony back in the 70's about the health value of breakfast cereal because rats fed a diet of only breakfast cereal died. Apparently rats don't metabolize cereal very well. This kind of "science" is always a bit questionable just because the proxies aren't necessarily a good analog to the human system they are being substituted for. The same problem crops up when you use tree rings for a temperature proxy and other such procedures. There are always confounding variables many of which you may be unaware of. I haven't dropped dead of oversalting my food yet, but never fear, we all use salt and we all die ... is there a connection? Well if you don't use salt you'll die sooner! Hmmm....