Should I be concerned about the amount of sodium in EP products?
Mark Pettus MD, FACP, ABOIM
The short answer is definitely not. As a Nephrologist for 40 years, my specialty has largely focused on the relationship between sodium, hypertension, and cardiovascular health.
A growing body of research is suggesting that our current guidelines of limiting daily sodium intake to below 2300 mg/day may in fact cause more harm than help. This is not to say that most Americans on a Standard American Diet (SAD indeed) are consuming appropriate amounts of sodium. Most in fact consume far too much sodium in the form of processed and fast foods that comprise the majority of the American diet. Average consumption is in the range of 6,000 to 10,000 mg sodium/day!
Recent research suggests a “J-Curve” when one looks at the relationship between daily sodium intake as confirmed by measuring urinary sodium excretion (only a few of the many published clinical trials actually measure this) and all-cause mortality. In other words, these graphs show that when sodium consumption is too low (below 3,500 and above 6,000 mg/day) both cardiovascular and all-cause mortality goes up!!
Of equal interest and greatly underappreciated by our medical enterprise is that too little natural sources of potassium have a comparable effect and that more potassium is ideal from a total health perspective.
The evidence suggests:
- An ideal sodium intake is 4,000 to 6,000 mg/day or approximately 1-2 tsp. of salt per day. Going too low or too high is problematic.
- Potassium intake should exceed a minimum of 2,000 mg/day. Too little is a significant health risk.
Most Americans on a SAD consume too much sodium from processed foods and not enough potassium from whole foods.
I do not recommend limiting sodium below 3,000 mg/day.
Both the potassium and the sodium content of all our EP products, if consumed to provide complete daily needs, falls nicely into this “sweet spot”.
For American consumers it is essential to recognize that our guidelines will lag behind the evolving scientific research sometimes by more than a decade!
Reference:
Martin O’Donnell, M.B., Ph.D., Andrew Mente, Ph.D et al. Urinary Sodium and Potassium Excretion, Mortality, and Cardiovascular Events. NEJM 371;7 nejm.org august 14, 2014