A new study casts doubt on the merits of reducing salt in our diet. The researchers found that a modest lowering of blood pressure may be offset by other less desirable effects of a low-sodium diet.
一项新的研究将矛头指向了低盐饮食的后果。 研究人员发现，虽然低盐饮食可以降低血压，但是这同时会给身体带来其他的不利影响。
For years it's been part of accepted medical wisdom: reducing salt in your diet will lower your blood pressure, which will lower your risk of heart attack and stroke.
多年来，医学上一直使用着一句至理名言： 少吃盐有助于降低血压，从而也就可以降低心脏病发作和中风的风险。
But according to Danish researcher Niels Graudal of Copenhagen University Hospital, the effect of a reduced-salt diet is less dramatic than you might think.
一位来自哥本哈根大学医院的丹麦研究人员Niels Graudal指出，减少饮食中盐的摄入量可能没有大家所想的那么好。
"We found that in normal persons with normal blood pressure, the effects on the blood pressure were surprisingly small. In patients with hypertension, the effect was somewhat bigger: the decrease was about 3.5 percent," he says.
他说：“我们发现，对于那些血压正常的人来说，盐对他们身体血压的作用微乎其微。 而对高血压病人来说，作用要稍微大一点，大约会使血压降低3.5%。”
Graudal mathematically combined the results of 167 previous studies to come up with his results. The people in the studies were largely European and North American, although Asians and blacks on low-sodium diets showed a somewhat larger reduction in their blood pressure.
Graudal用数学方法将之前别人提出的167项相关研究结果和他自己的研究结果结合起来探索。 这些报告的研究者大部分都是欧洲和北美的研究员，可是研究表明，低盐饮食对亚洲人和黑人降低血压的作用更大一些。
Even a modest reduction for people with high blood pressure is probably a good thing, but the study also found that people on a low-sodium diet had higher levels of cholesterol, which is associated with an increased risk of heart disease.
能够降低血压对高血压人群来说似乎是一件好事。 但是，这项研究发现，低盐饮食人群的胆固醇值偏高，而这会增加患心脏病的风险。
Graudal says the body's natural salt-regulation system was also affected by a low-sodium diet. "And we saw that when you reduce the sodium intake, the hormone system was activated, which means that the body obviously felt that there was a danger that the amount of salt in the body could become too low."
Graudal表示，低盐饮食也会影响到人体自身的盐分调节系统。 他说：“我们发现，减少钠的摄入量会激活人体的内分泌系统，而这意味着身体很明显地感觉到它正面临着盐分降低的威胁。”
It might be more helpful to look directly for a link between salt consumption and heart disease or death, but Graudal says very few studies have tried to do that.
直接观察盐的摄入量与心脏病或死亡的联系也许更加方便， 但是Graudal说目前几乎还没有人做过类似的研究。
"It would be very difficult to make a randomized, a big randomized study and keep people on special diets for many years," he explains. "Practically that would be very, very difficult."
他解释说：“要开展一个大型的随机性的研究，并且让观察对象长年累月地坚持吃特殊的饮食是非常困难的。 从实际情况上讲，那太困难了。”
Graudal cautions that his study should not be interpreted as a license to eat as much salt as you want. He says it just confirms that a moderate amount of salt in a normal diet is probably not harmful, and reducing salt intake has both positive and negative effects that might not help reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke.
Graudal提醒大家，他的研究报告不能解读为鼓励大家随心所欲地多摄入盐。 他表示，这项报告只是为了证明在日常饮食中摄入适量的盐是没有害处的，而减少盐的摄入量是一把双刃剑，虽然有积极影响，但是不利于降低心脏病和中风的风险。
His paper reviewing previous studies on the impact of low-sodium diets is published in the American Journal of Hypertension.
他在《美国高血压杂志》上发表的这篇报告对先前那些关于低盐饮食影响的研究进行了修订。
|
