PURE Study: Only Cutting the Saltiest Diets Helps the Heart.
How important is salt restriction when it comes to heart health and blood pressure control? This topic comes to my attention more often than not, so here’s my take on the results of the recent PURE study.
Recently published in the prestigious journal THE LANCET, sodium consumption made little difference when it came to blood pressure control. That is unless we are talking about consuming more than six grams of sodium daily.
It’s been assumed for years that any approach taken to reduce blood pressure will translate into fewer cardiovascular events such as heart attacks and strokes. However, the claim that salt plays a role in blood pressure control has never been proven.
In this study the associations between sodium intake and cardiovascular events did not change when adjusted for age, sex and blood pressure, suggesting that sodium intake plays little role in event rate.
Interestingly, major cardiovascular outcomes decreased with increasing potassium intake.
I don’t mean to imply that it’s ok to consume sodium to excess. Indeed there is a small population that may be truly salt-sensitive. But clearly they are in the minority.
There are some inherent limitations of the PURE study. It is a large epidemiology study involving more than 130,000 subjects from 49 different countries.
But one point is clear; eat your veggies! This study confirms the heart healthy benefits of eating fruits and vegetables