Salt, fats, sugar maligned by myths

<p>"If it tastes good, it's bad for you, right?” Larry King, the legendary talk show host, asked a guest on his CNN program, “Larry King Live.”</p><p>I no longer recall the guest's identity, but I do remember that he did not disagree with King's statement, which was more declaration than question.</p><p>I turned off the television and walked away, thinking to myself that somewhere a Puritan was smiling, for what else but Puritanical ambivalence about pleasure could account for such an astonishingly misinformed remark?</p><p>Such myths abound, in spite of their inherent illogic. How could we have survived as a species if hunger and its satisfaction, if appetite, were enemies of well being? Long before we developed understanding of specific nutrients, hunger lead us to what we needed to survive, including many foods demonized today.</p><p>Let's look at those considered the worst offenders.</p><p>Salt: We crave it. Why? Because we require it, because it was not easy for our early ancestors to obtain it, because without it, we die and without enough of it, our bodies do not function properly. When we are salt deficient, craving grows so strong that we are driven to eat dirt so that we can extract what salt is in the soil. Yet we are told to reduce our use of salt, though we ingest much less than our ancestors.</p><p>No study shows a connection between salt consumption and increased blood pressure, an alleged risk; rather, studies demonstrate that certain individuals, about 8 percent of those suffering from hypertension, can lower already-elevated blood pressure by reducing the amount of salt they consume. At the same time, recent studies show an increased risk of death among those with the lowest sodium levels and reveal a large population, between 70 percent and 80 percent, unaffected by salt. In Japan, where salt consumption is about double ours, life expectancy exceeds our own by several years.</p><p>Government guidelines say not to add salt when cooking and not add it at the table, yet more than 80 percent of the salt we eat comes from processed foods because food manufacturers use salt to add flavor to otherwise bland foods that have little if any nutritional value.</p><p>Salt is as flavor's midwife, encouraging ingredients to blossom fully. When we add salt in stages as we cook, as the best chefs understand, foods achieve their full flavors and we end up using less. Evidence suggests that giving up processed foods and learning how to use salt effectively is the wisest approach.</p><p>The propaganda about fats is worse. Despite an enormous amount of research about the substantial health benefits of many saturated fats, we are still cautioned to shun butter, coconut oil, duck fat and lard. But research does not support this approach. Most liquid oils, the recommended replacement for saturated fats, go through high-heat processing, which destroys nutrients and creates free-radicals, which in turn cause inflammation and depress immune function.</p><p>Butter, on the other hand, is chock full of nutrients, including lauric acid, an immune-protective nutrient also found in mother's milk. Butter is rich in vitamins A, D, E and K and contains more than a dozen other essential nutrients, along with short-chain fatty acids, which are not easily stored as fat in the body. Butter has a high smoke point and does not oxidize when heated.</p><p>Other animal fats are equally beneficial, as is the fat of coconuts, avocados, fish like sardines and salmon, and — are you ready for great news? — chocolate, which contains the highly beneficial stearic acid, which relaxes blood vessels, and protects against blood clots and atheroclerosis.</p><p>Lard was demonized in the early 20th century, when manufacturers who had developed vegetable oils that were solid at room temperature waged a highly effective advertising campaign that began in the South and spread quickly throughout the country. When there were shortages of butter during World War II, margarine was declared a healthier alternative. Now that we know these trans fats, as all artificially solidified fats are, are toxic, doesn't it make sense to return to wholesome, traditional fats that occur naturally?</p><p>Finally, there's sugar, which is, alas, more complicated than salt and fat, in part because most of what is used today — refined sugar, high-fructose corn syrup and agave nectar — is highly processed and because most Americas eat way too much of it: 175 pounds per person per year, according to the Weston A. Price Foundation. The foundation recommends eliminating sugar-based drinks, limiting natural sweets to three times a week and slowly replacing refined sugars with natural sugars, such as maple syrup, unfiltered honey and molasses, adding that when we eat three good meals a day, rich with healthy protein and good fats, sugar cravings diminish.</p><p>With salt, butter, chocolate and maple syrup on the good list, tossing out refined sugar doesn't seem difficult at all, does it?</p><p>Michele Anna Jordan writes four columns a week for the Press Democrat and is the author of 17 books to date, including “Salt & Pepper” (Broadway Books, 1999.) Email Jordan at michele@micheleannajordan.com. You'll find her blog, “Eat This Now,” at pantry.blogs.pressdemocrat.com.</p>