At Academic Network, many urban myths are addressed each day as we assist consumers in their structuring healthier lives. Diet is basic and salt is frequently a topic we address.  For most of us, when it comes to salt we find it has been denied a place at the table.

Salt has a bad reputation, but what if it’s not so bad for folks in the US or around the world?   That perspective was recently featured in the Science Times Section of the New York Times: (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/23/science/23tier.html). As John Tierney of the Times quoted Dr. David McCarron, “until unbiased, properly controlled clinical trials are performed, government regulation of salt is unwise and potentially harmful to many individuals.”

Today’s article in the TimesOnline (London, UK) asks “Is salt really the Devil’s ingredient?” Focusing on a recent piece in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN), the article questions the growing portrayal of salt as a primary dietary culprit.  The CJASN article, coauthored by Dr. David McCarron, questions the regulation of sodium consumption through public policy, stating that science must ultimately determine the matter.