Salt Shocks World

10 And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.

11 He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.

Man must settle it in his mind that the God of the Bible is the God above all gods and the Creator of all that is—or that He is not.  Man should settle in his mind that his short life ends and that he will finally stand before the judgment seat of God.  This meeting marks the final page of man’s mortal record.  Revelation 20:11-15:

11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.

12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

For many, death and judgment seem far off—something they have a hard time relating to—but death and judgment are always so precariously close. 

You can escape the fear of death and the terrors of the Great White Throne, and this way of escape is a highway, the way of holiness (Isaiah 35:8).  This highway of holiness is a person, and His name is the wonderful Jesus Christ.  John 14:6:

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Would you like to begin your beautiful journey on the highway of deliverance?  Would you like to be part of the most magnanimous miracle of all time?  Would you like a new Father, a new name, a new marvelous purpose, and be forgiven of all sin and guilt?  If you said yes, today is your day of salvation.  Click onto “Further With Jesus” for childlike instructions and immediate entry into the Kingdom of God. NOW FOR TODAY'S SUBJECT.

GOD SAID, Leviticus 2:13:

And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering: with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt.

GOD SAID, Job 6:6:

Can that which is unsavoury be eaten without salt? or is there any taste in the white of an egg?

GOD SAID, Mark 9:49-50:

49 For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.

50 Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another.

MAN SAID:  Did Jesus Christ have any understanding of the human anatomy at all?!  If God created all things by Christ Jesus (Hebrews 1:2), why didn’t He know that salt is a killer? 

Now THE RECORD.  For thousands of years, the Word of God has been on record outlining the positions of truth on the issues of life and death.  Man, in his limited knowledge, has rejected God’s Word as the writings of mere outdated men, to the devastation of the population at large. 

The scriptures are replete with dietary directives.  On this website, there are over 50 subjects dealing with dietary matters that vindicate the Word of God.  God’s truth never changes because real truth remains constant.  On the other hand, man’s “truth” of yesterday is debunked by man’s “truth” of today.  Man’s “truth” of today will be discredited by man’s “truth” of tomorrow.  This is simply because man’s “truth” is not truth. 

If the Bible is the inerrant Word of the Living God, the God of Truth, then rejecting its edicts would come with a resultant negative consequence—and it most surely does!  A reoccurring principle on GodSaidManSaid states that every directive given by God is the inerrant truth, and inherent within each commandment is a blessing or a curse.  Obey, and you will reap the blessing of doing the right thing; disobey, and you will reap the curse, the consequence of doing the wrong thing.  It is just that simple.  Proverb 26:2:

As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come.

The subject of God’s position on salt had been addressed by GodSaidManSaid decades ago.  A few excerpts follow from the last feature GodSaidManSaid published in January of 2005 that focused on God and salt:

As in most situations, too much of anything is not good for you:  too much air, too much water, food, sleep, and more.  The scriptures, of course, teach moderation.  Salt has become medical media’s whipping boy—the blood pressure, the hypertension boogieman, as well as a host of other medical maladies.  Before we get into the details of the salt controversy, you should know that the health food industry’s endorsement is on sea salt—sea salt that still retains its many minerals. 

Salt is 40% sodium and 60% chloride—truly staples of life.  Sodium represents around 93% of basic mineral elements in blood serum and stands chief in regulating blood pH.  Muscle contraction depends on sodium and it plays a crucial role in nerve impulse transmission, heart rhythm, plus much more.  Chloride, on the other hand, is the primary anion in blood and represents approximately 66% of its acidic ions.  The movement of chloride in and out of our red blood cells is critical in maintaining the required acid-base blood balance.  It’s essential to the digestion process and, I’m sure, a whole host of other things we are and aren’t yet aware of.  Salt is critical to life. 

In ancient history, salt was deemed so valuable that soldiers, for instance, were actually paid in salt.  This is where we get the word salary and the old axiom, “you aren’t worth your salt.” 

Could Jesus Christ, with His endorsement of salt, stand right in the face of “obvious” contradiction?  It will be a surprise to many that much research and many health professionals reject today’s prominent position against salt.  In August 1998, under the heading, “The (Political) Science of Salt,” in Science magazine, the following excerpts were found:

So what’s the problem?  For starters, salt is a primary determinant of taste in food—fat, of course, is the other—and 80% of the salt we consume comes from processed foods, making it difficult to avoid.  Then there’s the kicker:  While the government has been denouncing salt as a health hazard for decades, no amount of scientific effort has been able to dispense with the suspicions that it is not.  Indeed, the controversy over the benefits, if any, of salt reduction now constitutes one of the longest running, most vitriolic, and surreal disputes in all of medicine.

On the one side are those experts—primarily physicians turned epidemiologists, and administrators such as Roccella and Claude Lenfant, heads of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)—who insist the evidence that salt raises blood pressure is effectively irrefutable.  They have an obligation, they say, to push for universal salt reduction, because people are dying and will continue to die if they wait for further research to bring scientific certainty.   On the other side are those researchers—primarily physicians turned epidemiologists, including former presidents of the American Heart Association, the American Society of Hypertension, and the European and International Societies of Hypertension—who argue that the data supporting universal salt reduction has never been compelling, nor has it ever been demonstrated that such a program would not have unforeseen negative side effects.  This was the verdict, for instance, of a review published last May in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).  University of Copenhagen researchers analyzed 114 randomized trials of sodium reduction, concluding that the benefit for hypertensives was significantly smaller than could be achieved by antihypertensive drugs, and that a “measurable” benefit in individuals with normal blood pressure (normotensives) of even a single millimeter of mercury could only be achieved with an “extreme” reduction in salt intake.  “You can say without a shadow of a doubt,” says Drummond Rennie, a JAMA editor and physiologist at the University of California (UC), San Francisco, “that the [NHLBI] has made a commitment to salt education that goes way beyond the scientific facts.”  [End of quote]

New research published by the news media in May 2013 has knocked the anti-salt zealots on their aggregate backsides.  The May 14 headline in the New York Times read, “No Benefit Seen in Sharp Limits on Salt in Diet.”  A few paragraphs follow:

In a report that undercuts years of public health warnings, a prestigious group convened by the government says there is no good reason based on health outcomes for many Americans to drive their sodium consumption down to the very low levels recommended in national dietary guidelines.

Those levels, 1,500 milligrams of sodium a day, or a little more than half a teaspoon of salt, were supposed to prevent heart attacks and strokes in people at risk, including anyone older than 50, blacks, and people with high blood pressure, diabetes, or chronic kidney disease—groups that make up more than half of the American population.

Some influential organizations, including the American Heart Association, have said that everyone, not just those at risk, should aim for that very low sodium level.  The heart association reaffirmed that position in an interview with its spokesman on Monday, even in light of the new report. 

But the new expert committee, commissioned by the Institute of Medicine at the behest of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said there was no rationale for anyone to aim for sodium levels below 2,300 milligrams a day.  The group examined new evidence that had emerged since the last such report was issued, in 2005. 

“As you go below the 2,300 mark, there is an absence of data in terms of benefits and there begin to be suggestions in subgroup populations about potential harms,” said Dr. Brian L. Strom, chairman of the committee and a professor of public health at the University of Pennsylvania.  He explained that the possible harms included increased rates of heart attacks and an increased risk of death. [End of quote]

Several excerpts from a feature published by Hot Air, July 11, 2013, titled “CDC: Oops, salt is not actually dangerous, and cutting it may be harmful,” and written by Mary Katharine Ham, follow:

A recent report commissioned by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) reviewed the health benefits of reducing salt intake and the take-home message is that salt, in the quantities consumed by most Americans, is no longer considered a substantial health hazard.  What the CDC study reported explicitly is that there is no benefit, and may be a danger, from reducing our salt intake below 1 tsp. per day.  What was absent from the report is the difference between healthy mineral salts and iodized table salt. 

It may be that we’re better off with more salt than less, up to 2 or even 3 tsp. per day.  How did it happen that such standard medical advice drifted astray, and then went uncorrected for so long? 

This review by the National Academies Institute of Medicine (IOM), commissioned by the CDC, considered dozens of studies, from cross-cultural (less reliable) to prospective, randomized with control (most reliable).  Most studies showed no relationship between salt intake and any health outcome.  Some seemed to indicate that more salt had a beneficial effect.

As with so many bad public health ideas, the idea of cutting salt found its national footing thanks to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose primary public service as head of the largest city in America has been to ban and discourage as many delicious foods as possible.  In 2009, Bloomberg started the National Salt Reduction Initiative, led by the New York City Health Department in an effort to push major food companies into “voluntary” lower-sodium standards.  The goal was to reduce sodium intake by 25 percent. 

There was push-back on the initiative from the scientific community here and there, but that didn’t stop Bloomberg’s strong-arming quest.

Dr. Sean Lucan of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine told The Post that the city’s salt war is “misguided”—and potentially dangerous.

“We can’t just swallow this as fact—there’s actually debate about this.  My concern is that they’re focusing on a single ingredient that the food industry is going to have to replace with something—and what they replace it with might be more damaging,” he added. 

Higher sodium intake has been shown in some studies to increase blood pressure, which is a major risk factor for heart attacks and strokes. 

But that’s only part of the story, Lucan said. 

“There is a relationship between sodium and blood pressure, but it’s not consistent.  And even when it’s present, it isn’t clinically very substantial,” he said. 

For some high-risk heart patients, some studies show, a low-salt diet “actually leads to worse cardiovascular disease and early death,” Lucan said. 

Lowering salt, Lucan notes in his article, “may also decrease insulin sensitivity, alter lipids, and stimulate a variety of neurohormonal pathways detrimental to the cardiovascular system.”   [End of quotes]

Another headline in a feature written by Ed Morrissey reads, “Great news: Government salt intake guidelines useless, may even be dangerous.” 

The world’s food science has a long track record of being on the wrong side of God’s science.  A very short list follows:

• U.S. food pyramid turned upside down;
• God commands the land and its Sabbath;
• Olive oil versus vegetable oils, etc.;
• Butter versus margarine and all types of partially hydrogenated fats;
• Whole-raw milk versus skim;
• Breast-feeding versus formula;
• Raw honey versus sugar;
• Negatives of hormones fed to livestock;
• GMO crops and the horrors to come;
• Dead animals mixed with cow feed and mad-cow disease;
• God’s endorsement of eggs;
• Salt to taste, 
• And many more

God’s position has not changed.  Salt is good. 

GOD SAID, Leviticus 2:13:

And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering: with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt.

GOD SAID, Job 6:6:

Can that which is unsavoury be eaten without salt? or is there any taste in the white of an egg?

GOD SAID, Mark 9:49-50:

49 For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.

50 Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another.

MAN SAID:  Did Jesus Christ have any understanding of the human anatomy at all?!  If God created all things by Christ Jesus (Hebrews 1:2), why didn’t He know that salt is a killer? 

Now you have THE RECORD.

 

References:

Authorized King James Version

GodSaidManSaid, “Salt is Good”

Ham, M., “CDC: Oops, salt is not actually dangerous, and cutting it may be harmful,” Hot Air, July 11, 2013

Kolata, G., “No Benefit Seen in Sharp Limits on Salt in Diet,” New York Times, May 14, 2013

Morrissey, E., “Great news: Government salt intake guidelines useless, may even be dangerous,” Hot Air, May 15, 2013

 

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