Posted by Jimmy Moore on March 19 in Health
There are a lot of universally-held beliefs regarding health that sometimes we just automatically accept as cold hard facts without ever seriously investigating those claims under a microscope and seeing what the latest research shows. Such is the case with the notion that consuming salt is bad for your health because it will raise your blood pressure. It's just not true and I'll explain why in a moment.
This subject was brought up by one of my very regular readers in a recent e-mail:
Dear Jimmy,
My question for you is about high blood pressure. I have been recently diagnosed with it and frankly I was shocked. I went to a Curves screening to check out my cholesterol (mine was great--low triglycerides, normal blood sugars, low LDL and high HDL), but I was taken by surprise when I saw my blood pressure was elevated.
Predictably, when I went to my doctor he recommended I go on blood pressure medication, immediately start the low-fat DASH diet and include regular exercise into my routine. I do not want to takes any medications if I can help it. However, I do admit to eating more carbs than usual (I really love potatoes) but I don’t eat much, if any, sugar (especially after reading Connie Bennett's SUGAR SHOCK!).
My question is, isn’t a low-carb diet supposed to lower blood pressure? I emailed Dr. Mary Vernon about this to see if the low-carb approach is better than the low-fat DASH diet. No response as yet. I was hoping she would choose it as a question for her blog. I wondered if you have run across any research in this area.
I have chosen to return again to the Induction phase to see what affect that has on my pressure. I will report back to you how it goes! Thanks, Jimmy for great information all the time. You keep us low-carbers so motivated with your endless enthusiasm!!
Isn't it interesting how whenever someone starts having health problems such as an increase in their blood pressure, the first thing the medical community wants to do is medicate and stick the person on a low-fat diet? Um, haven't we done that over and over again and yet these problems still persist? Wouldn't somebody somewhere along the way say NOW WAIT JUST A MINUTE? If not, then let me be the first to ask that question.
Learn the arguments that these militant anti-salt fanatics use to convince people to stop eating salt and why they are not only dead wrong about it (and I've got scientific evidence to back me up on that) but they are also severely misguiding people about what the real health problem is by clicking here.
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