Brand new research on salt and sugary drinks (from Harvard)

Harvard scientists this week released research findings from the 2010 Global Burden of Diseases Study that included 303 medical institutions from 50 countries around the world.  Some of their significant findings included:

Salt

• Eating too much salt lead to the deaths of 2.3 million people across the world in just 1 year.  Although the U.S. Government recommends a maximum of 2300 milligrams a day and the American Heart Association recommends no more than 1500 milligrams a day to avoid risk for heart disease and stroke, the researchers said that 1000 milligrams per day or less is optimal.  As noted in one of our chapters in It's Not Rocket Science: 52 Resolutions - the body needs FAR less salt than even that.  American Heart Association Surveys show that Americans average about 3,400 milligrams a day.
• 60% of cardiovascular deaths linked to salt intake occurred in men and 40% in women.
• Heart attacks were the cause of death in 40% of the sodium related deaths, stroke another 40% and other types of heart disease made up the rest.
• About 40% of the deaths occurred in those under 69 years of age.
• The United States' research showed 429 deaths per one million U.S. adults linked to eating too much salt - about 1 in 10 U.S. deaths.

Sugary Drinks

• Drinking sugary drinks was linked to 180,000 obesity related deaths worldwide in 2010 including the deaths of about 25,000 Americans.
• Overall, 1 in 100 deaths of obese people globally can be blamed on too many sweetened beverages.
• Of the 2010 deaths linked to sugar sweetened soft drinks, fruit juices, or sports beverages - 132,000 deaths were from diabetes, 44,000 from cardiovascular disease, and 6,000 from Cancer

Kim and I have chapters in It's Not Rocket Science:  52 Resolutions on both of these topics.  For more, go to http://www.fiftytworesolutions.com - buy the book and see Chapters 12, 14, and even 49.

On another note related to information in the public domain this week that we addressed in the book, April's Prevention Magazine features an article called "Meet Your Future" about telomeres - the topic of our book's chapter 29.