Jeffrey Steingarten has a wonderful passage in his chapter about salt (The Man Who Ate Everything), in which he refers to the Yanomamo Indians of northern Brazil, who have the most famous blood pressure in the world because it is the lowest. This is frequently referenced by those who deprecate salt intake because the Yanomami eat tiny amounts of salt. Steingarten rather betrays his views on this subject when he says: "Does eating salt cause high blood pressure? Mankind has a great deal riding on this question, because - no matter what some people may tell you - salt is indispensable to good food and good cooking." That "no matter what some people may tell you" says a good deal about the writer.
He then analyses the literature on salt and concludes by making his real point. Apparently almost half of all Yanomami men have killed someone, and a third of all Yanomamo deaths are the result of violence. "By all accounts, the Yanomami are a bunch of bloodthirsty maniacs who make Abu Nidal look like a scoutmaster. Personally, I wouldn't be at all surprised if their tasteless behaviour were due entirely to salt deficiency. I doubt that the blood pressure industry is looking into this".
I don't know how a nutritionist would view this, and I would not be irresponsible enough to insist reliance upon what he says. I just thought this was typically witty an worth sharing.
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