5) DIET TO AVOID HEART DISEASE
h) Reducing Salt Intake
If a person with type 2 diabetes has high blood pressure and is overweight, the blood pressure and the risk of death from heart disease can go up considerably if they consume large amounts of table salt. This fact has been confirmed in numerous well done studies and is irrefutable. There is an important caveat to this. Recent research has shown that excess salt (or "sodium") creates a lot of its damage by replacing potassium in the body. It is very desirable to have about twice as much potassium as sodium in the diet. Unfortunately the modern diet supplies about twice as much sodium as it does potassium. And this is definitely bad for the health of the heart. So anyone with diabetes should definitely be putting away the salt shaker and avoiding prepared foods with a lot of salt in them.
The problems start when a person with type 2 diabetes adds "no salt" or "must be low in salt" to their list of dietary restrictions ("low salt" is synonymous with "low sodium"). If you look at the labels on foods, there just aren't many without added salt! Even canned vegetables, such as naval beans, have salt added. So a restricted diet starts becoming a diet so restricted that no one can follow it. If someone has marginally high blood pressure that responds well to medication they might want to consider not adding any salt to their food and avoiding really salty food such as pickles and olives and simply leaving their salt control at that point. On the other hand someone whose blood pressure refuses to come under control and whose blood pressure goes off the charts on a regular basis obviously has to pay much closer attention to sodium intake.
There is also a school of thought that high sodium intake can be balanced out by a high intake of magnesium (Epsom salts, half a tsp per day max), potassium (using a potassium salt such as "Lite Salt™"), and calcium (fat free dairy products). There isn't a lot of data which supports this but there doesn't seem to be any harm in restrained use of these supplements to counter sodium. Remember to go light on the potassium salt. Significant quantities of non-organic potassium can give heart irregularities and heart attacks. Organic supplements and wheat germ are better sources of potassium.
Next Chapter: 6) CONTROLLING WEIGHT
a) Introduction
b) What is "Overweight"
c) The Endless Cycles of an Overweight Person with Type 2 Diabetes
d) Food and Diet
e) Food "Rules"
f) USDA Food Pyramid
g) Adaptive Human Body
h) Timing of Meals
i) Serving Size
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