Notes on "The Park Avenue Diet Show: The Salt of the Earth"; January 30, 2011

I haven't touched a salt shaker since 1976 when, as a medical student at Maimonides Medical Center, I saw the immediate effects of sodium chloride on blood pressure and fluid retention. When was the last time you used a salt shaker? Did you stop in 1976 as well?

What were those early clinical experiences that so alarmed me? One had to have been repeatedly seeing elderly people rushed to the emergency room after a large salty meal. The patients were sitting upright gasping for breath, blue in the face, alarming their family and friends. Pulmonary edema, commonly referred to as "water in the lungs" was what these unhappy people were experiencing. There was literally a parade of ambulances and stretchers on Christmas Eve after the Feast of the Seven Fishes. That enormously salty meal resulted in fluid retention and terrifying medical emergencies.

Sodium chloride exerts its dangerous effects via an osmotic affinity with water. That's why the people almost drowned internally after overeating on Christmas Eve. The same osmotic effect is responsible for sodium chloride's ability to preserve food. Did you know that? When added to a can of recently cooked string beans, for example, salt will draw fluid from any nearby bacteria, thus dehydrating and killing them. This property has been known for thousands of years and is exactly why Austrian "cavemen" and Roman soldiers learned to use salt as a means of preserving fresh foods. It certainly was not added to make the items taste better.

How much salt do you need in a day? Very little, because our kidneys miraculously extract just the right amount from what we eat. Rarely can adding salt to food be considered life-saving or essential (the only examples of the contrary would apply to people who have fainted or have severe diarrhea or dehydration).

Since only 2,000 milligrams of sodium is recommended per day, why would anyone throw caution to the wind and eat foods that have unnecessarily high amounts included? I have no idea. Even the innocuous gesture of adding salt to water when making pasta needs some re-evaluation. Do you know why salt is added? It's to raise the boiling point of the water. In that way the pasta will cook more quickly and thoroughly, especially if it is preferred "al dente". If salt were added simply for taste, it could just as easily be added afterwards.

Salt and its effect on weight is well documented. The last thing that someone struggling with weight needs is fluid retention. Therefore please consider doing what I did in 1976 and give up table salt for the next thirty-five years. And in thirty-five years, ask me whether or not to continue this way.