New findings reported on salt consumption

A new study from Belgium has found that salt could help reduce the chances of heart disease, although it did not find that taking more salt in your food has any health benefits, as the research reviewed levels of salt in people’s urine, not their diet .
The study involved monitoring salt levels in the urine of nearly 3,700 patients with an average age of around 38–40 for nearly eight years, to assess the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), high blood pressure and other related conditions.
There were 84 CVD-related deaths reported among the group, with 50 CVD-related deaths in the third of participants who recorded the lowest salt levels, while there were only 10 deaths in those passing the most salt.
However, this result does not necessarily indicate that salt increases blood pressure and the risk of cardiovascular problems, as salt in urine does not have to equate with the amount of salt in the diet. The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Associatio, pointed out that it could also be due to factors such as the effectiveness of the kidneys in processing sodium .
The report also stated that the findings were mainly relevant for white Europeans and should not be generalised to other ethnic groups, and that further research is needed to clarify the association between salt intake, blood pressure and related mortality .