By: Anthony Campo
Sometimes I wish I could go back in time to see the events leading up to the fear many individuals have of certain foods. By fear, I mean there are certain foods that people think are going to kill them. This might seem harmless, but as people fear foods such as red meat and sodium are going to instantly give them a heart attack they usually resort to foods that have actually scientifically been shown to have harmful effects to ones health.
Let’s first start with sodium. The media has given sodium a horrible wrap. I will just start my saying their is NO RESEARCH that shows a direct link between sodium consumption and heart disease in healthy individuals. There was some research that was done 25 years ago that had shown an indirect link between sodium consumption and individuals with preexisting heart conditions. This research has since been dis-proven, however many magazines and members of the media are still pedaling the dangers of sodium. To any individual who has an active lifestyle, sodium is a valuable component of nutrition that had many healthy effects. To an athlete, sodium is an extremely important ingredient to help improve performance. So long story short, unless you have a specific condition which there is an imbalance of sodium in the system, staying away from sodium is not the answer to your problems.
The best example of this is fast food. Now we all know fast food usually is a pretty unhealthy food choice, but why? The first thing you usually hear way before the excess amounts of sugar and trans fats pumped into the meal is just how much sodium their is in a Big Mac Value meal. Now I totally agree with you that a Big Mac Value meal is horrible for you, but is sure as heck is NOT because of the sodium. It is the sugar infused bun, chemically altered trans fatty meat, and dangerous combo of carbs and fat in the french fries NOTTT the salt they sprinkle on top. That is like a drunk driver blaming their car accident on the color of their car.
Recent research has shown that the majority of individuals are now deficient in iodine. This leads to a slew of problems with the thyroid, and can dramatically have a poor affect on weight and body composition. With the epidemic of obesity that now exists, iodine deficiency is just another ingredient to the problem. One of the main sources of iodine that we can still get comes from iodized salt. So if you are looking to improve your health and weight don’t be afraid to sprinkle some iodized salt on your meat and veggies, and instead stay away from the excess sugar and trans fats.