[HN Gopher] Adding salt to food at table can cut years off your ...
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       Adding salt to food at table can cut years off your life, study
       finds
        
       Author : yamrzou
       Score  : 15 points
       Date   : 2022-07-11 19:04 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.theguardian.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.theguardian.com)
        
       | mrkramer wrote:
       | I know but salt is so tasty :/
       | 
       | Especially salted meat or French fries.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | biomcgary wrote:
       | From the article: "The study did not definitively rule out other
       | factors, such as salt consumption being a proxy for a generally
       | less healthy lifestyle,". In the list of things that they
       | corrected for neither education or income were included.
       | Education is correlated with income and probably with reduced
       | salt intake. Income is roughly anti-correlated with stress. So,
       | my guess is that this result wouldn't hold up with a few more
       | pertinent corrections applied.
        
         | Mo3 wrote:
         | Yup. Back when I was smoking cigarettes I used to pour salt on
         | anything - and funnily enough a huge percentage of smokers does
         | the same, no idea why.
        
           | pwdisswordfish0 wrote:
           | In case that wasn't rhetorical, AFAIK smoking is known to
           | dull one's sense of taste. I would imagine smokers to be less
           | picky eaters and drinkers for this reason as well.
        
             | Mo3 wrote:
             | It surely is, but I believe it has less to do with sense of
             | taste. There's a very weird, intangible correlation between
             | smoking (and afaik, drinking) and favouring salty food. Not
             | as in, a little bit saltier just to taste it, but actually
             | _salty_. There 's a few studies around with inconclusive
             | results but they usually always reach the conclusion that
             | salt/sodium intake is dramatically higher in smokers and/or
             | drinkers, but no further conclusions as to which other
             | factors come into play besides nicotine reducing the ion
             | current mediated by the epithelial sodium channel.
             | Although, admittedly, I didn't look further since because I
             | stopped smoking anyway.
        
       | constGard wrote:
       | I feel like almost anyone else on here could say this, but
       | correlation is not causation, especially in these large
       | observational studies. Abstaining from salt in your diet is
       | unusual and likely accompanies other factors that could impact
       | your longevity.
        
         | iorek_dev wrote:
         | From the article:
         | 
         | > This does not include seasoning during the cooking process.
         | 
         | It just means to not add a salt shaker on the table, not
         | "abstaining from salt in your diet".
        
           | im3w1l wrote:
           | It's very mysterious how the chemical properties of the table
           | salt shaker differs from the seasoning.
        
             | feet wrote:
             | It's rather the amount and perception of amount added.
             | Usually in recipes while cooking, the amount is more
             | controlled and distributed throughout the dish. Adding
             | further salt adds more uncontrolled variability to the
             | sodium intake in ones' diet
        
               | iorek_dev wrote:
               | I think there is more than the amount. Salt is a taste
               | enhancer when you cook with it, added to the table it
               | just add a salty taste to your plate.
        
           | cphoover wrote:
           | The original commenters point still stands though right?
           | 
           | Also isn't addition of salt often a sign the chef/cook messed
           | up and under-salted a dish?
        
             | iorek_dev wrote:
             | >The original commenters point still stands though right?
             | 
             | Yes!
             | 
             | > Also isn't addition of salt often a sign the chef/cook
             | messed up and under-salted a dish?
             | 
             | Being a question of taste, literally, it is a subjective
             | question. IMO you should respect the choice of the
             | chef/cook, and if we are only talking of the "messed up"
             | dishes, then I hope the cook dont mess up that often that
             | is justify to add a salt shaker on the table.
             | 
             | On the other side you have people that add salt to every
             | dish, and this before tasting it, those one are on the dark
             | side!
        
       | outsidetheparty wrote:
       | As is usual for science reporting, the actual study's claims are
       | much more modest than the news headline suggests, and indeed only
       | claim a correlation: "Our findings indicate that higher frequency
       | of adding salt to foods is associated with a higher hazard of
       | all-cause premature mortality and lower life expectancy."
       | 
       | https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/advance-article/doi/10.10...
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | vgeek wrote:
       | What about MSG?
        
       | solarkraft wrote:
       | I'll leave the discussion about correlation vs causation to
       | others, I'm just here to add that the new German health minister
       | Karl Lauterbach somewhat infamously fully abstains from added
       | salt in his food to the point of having extra stuff prepared for
       | him at gatherings.
       | 
       | https://www-deutschlandfunknova-de.translate.goog/beitrag/sa...
       | 
       | He's a bit like a Richard Stallman for salt.
        
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       (page generated 2022-07-11 23:02 UTC)