One of the key recommendations of the 2010 (new Dietary Guidelines will be relea
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Question
One of the key recommendations of the 2010 (new Dietary Guidelines will be released later this year. The Dietary Guidelines Committee has submitted their report) Dietary guidelines is as follows:
“Reduce sodium intake to less than 2300 mg and further reduce intake to 1500 mg among persons who are 51 years or older and those of any age who are African Americans or have hypertension, diabetes, or chronic kidney disease. The 1500 mg recommendation applies to about half of the U.S. population, including children and the majority of adults.”
This recommendation came under criticism by the food and salt industry and also by some scientists who thought that that 1.5 gm of salt or less for adults over 50 was not a realistic amount to consume. The politics of salt (Links to an external site.) is not without controversy. There is no question that the DASH diet which reduces salt intake and has other healthy attributes reduces hypertension in vulnerable adults. However, sodium also has many other useful functions as we studied in this chapter . It is a major component of blood plasma, helps to transport nutrients and helps nerve impulses and brain-muscle signaling pathways. Many argue that the recommendations for adults, especially those living in warmer climates and exercising might be too low.
A study published in May 2011, in JAMA (Links to an external site.) suggested that diets low in sodium increase death from strokes and cardiovascular disease and do not indeed reduce blood pressure. No study is without any limitations and this study drew criticism from CDC (Links to an external site.) and also from other scientists.
What do you think? Are the recommendations for sodium too high or too low? Are they just right? Should we have blanket recommendations for the general population as a public health policy ? Is is better to include many sub groups while recommending nutrients ?
Explanation / Answer
According to the Dietary guidelines for Americans ,sodium intake for average adult should not be more than 2300 mg per day.There are special recommendations for middle aged and older adults,people of african american origin ,high blood pressure pateints , to not consume sodium more than 1500 mg per day.Sodium is responsible for performing many biological activities such as maintaining fluid balance, muscle contraction and relaxation,transmission of nerve impulses.Excess sodium in the diet will result in increasing the blood volume.This will burden the heart to do more work,and will lead to increase in blood pressure.Individuals following DASH diet with sodium intake of 1500 mg/day resulted in low blood pressure.
Therefore the recommendations are just right.
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