Yesterday I was watching Dr. Oz and there was a special guest star Rachel Ray and Dr. Oz mentioned too much salt causes the onslaught of Alzheimer. After hearing this I thought of starting a new thread about here so giving everyone a heads up on it! Here is an in-depth article about it. Dr. Oz show with Rachel Ray's recipes.
Salt is my arch enemy because I had kidney stones twice already and I'm on my third case. But this last one occurrence was discovered in 2006 and I'm still holding on with the help of herbal cures. I love salty foods, that's the problem. Now, I am trying to wean away myself from salty food and salt in particular. Like buying popcorn when we go to the movies, I refuse to sprinkle salt on it. That's the same with french fries in fastfood outlets.
I don't buy ready meals or convenience food because of the salt and I never use salt in my own cooking. I do sometimes add an ingredient that contains some salt and of course I do consume some salt in the food I eat. Usually though I add a variety of herbs, spices or cider vinegar in place of salt, and I always include onion in the recipe, so nothing I cook ever tastes bland. There is no need to add any salt when cooking rice, pasta, potatoes or vegetables and no-one will complain about lack of taste when you create a rich sauce with natural vegtable stock or sieved tomatoes.
I think food companies approached the salt issue the wrong way. They should have left their food products totally unsalted, and let the customers determine the amount of salt they want, none at all, or a substitute.
I'm never sure whether to believe these stories because there are so many different theories about which food are healthy and which to avoid. My friend's father liked his food really salty and when he ate out he always added salt without tasting it first. He lived into his early eighties. There was a lot wrong with him when he died, but he didn't have Alzheimer's.
It is actually not that salt itself is bad for you, it is the TYPE of salt that we are using that is bad for us and causes dementia. Most table salt is processed using aluminum; which has been a known cause of Alzheimer's disease for many years. This is one of the main reasons that many people stopped using aluminum cookware and the old-fashioned percolator coffee pots which were made of aluminum. Salt is actually very necessary for our health, and especially for us as older people, but we are the ones who are most often told to limit our salt intake. One of the more common problem that seniors have during hot weather is called heat stroke. When a person has a heat stroke, the first thing that paramedics are apt to do is try to rehydrate them, and they give the person a saline solution , so salt is one of the main treatments . Here is an excellent article that explains why we need salt, and points out the difference between a healthy type of salt, and one that can cause health problems. http://wellnessmama.com/3745/is-salt-healthy/
Salt in itself is not bad but is an essential nutriment for the body. The food sellers know when you are mineral deficient you crave salt that is why the mineral blocks for animals have salt in them. Salt will not cause dementia but a mineral deficiency will. Doctor do not have a clue about mineral deficiency diseases.