On 8/05/2011 12:13 PM, David Harmon wrote:
> On Thu, 05 May 2011 21:06:52 -0700 in rec.food.cooking, isw
> > wrote,
>>
>> As I understand it, as explained by my doctor: For *some* people, it is
>> "all about the salt". For most folks, though, dietary salt has little to
>> no effect on blood pressure.
>
> Or in other words, it's a genetic trait. Some people are sensitive
> to salt and get high blood pressure from it that can kill us. Some
> people are not. Which is what makes it so damned offensive when
> somebody who doesn't have that problem says "It didn't bother me,
> so stop bitching about salt."

The only thing genetic about high blood pressure and the excess use of
salt is that we, as humans, haven't had long enough to build up a
genetic tolerance to excesses of salt in our diets. That might take
millions of years whereas we have only begun to consume salt since the
time where we learnt that it preserves food. Historically, salt was once
a scarce commodity and valuable commodity. That changed with
industrialised production and now salt is plentiful. Directly related to
this is the increased use in food for preservation and latterly as a
flavour enhancer. We simply haven't had time to adapt and we pay the price.

Krypsis