Public policy and dietary sodium restriction.

摘要

To the Editor: In his Commentary, Dr Alderman1 sounded a note of caution regarding a push within the public health community to put all US residents on a low-salt diet.2 A recent analysis3 may help inform the decades-old debate about salt intake and health. The study analyzed 24-hour urinary sodium collections from 62 published government surveys collected between 1982 and 2008, comprising 19 151 participants in 33 countries. It found a remarkably narrow range of sodium intake worldwide (mean, 3726 mg/d; 95% confidence interval, 2691-4876 mg/d; to convert from mg to mmol, divide by 23).