Cardiovascular disease, sodium vs. saturated fat/cholesterol
Posted: Fri Apr 03, 2015 1:25 pm
Hi Jeff,
I was rereading James Kenney's article on salt that you often recommend, and I was wondering if I could get your thoughts on the role of salt in the diet and the progression of cardiovascular disease vs the role of saturated fat and cholesterol. Kenney at times seemed very suggestive that salt's role in raising blood pressure and causing hypertension is a better indicator of CVD risk then other factors and that in some populations that consume diets higher in animal products they are protected because they don't add salt to their diets, and have low rates of CVD (I may be extrapolating on this as he doesn't go deep into detail on the role of saturated fat and cholesterol in the article). Yet, I would say generally in the US lipid markers are considered to be more valuable as an indication of CVD risk than blood pressure, though of course both are important biomarkers. So my question is, hypothetically, if we had four groups, one that ate a whole food plant based diet and had low sodium levels, one that ate a plant based diet but added lots of salt, one that ate a standard American diet but with low sodium levels, and one that ate a standard American diet with salt, what type of difference in CVD outcomes would we expect to see? Obviously we can do both, that is not consume large amounts of saturated fat and add high amounts of salt to our diet, which I do and don't intend to change, and both of them play roles in other conditions not just CVD so they should be avoided for that reason as well, but would one be more important than the other in your opinion for CVD prevention?
Thanks
I was rereading James Kenney's article on salt that you often recommend, and I was wondering if I could get your thoughts on the role of salt in the diet and the progression of cardiovascular disease vs the role of saturated fat and cholesterol. Kenney at times seemed very suggestive that salt's role in raising blood pressure and causing hypertension is a better indicator of CVD risk then other factors and that in some populations that consume diets higher in animal products they are protected because they don't add salt to their diets, and have low rates of CVD (I may be extrapolating on this as he doesn't go deep into detail on the role of saturated fat and cholesterol in the article). Yet, I would say generally in the US lipid markers are considered to be more valuable as an indication of CVD risk than blood pressure, though of course both are important biomarkers. So my question is, hypothetically, if we had four groups, one that ate a whole food plant based diet and had low sodium levels, one that ate a plant based diet but added lots of salt, one that ate a standard American diet but with low sodium levels, and one that ate a standard American diet with salt, what type of difference in CVD outcomes would we expect to see? Obviously we can do both, that is not consume large amounts of saturated fat and add high amounts of salt to our diet, which I do and don't intend to change, and both of them play roles in other conditions not just CVD so they should be avoided for that reason as well, but would one be more important than the other in your opinion for CVD prevention?
Thanks