Earlier this month, we were awestruck by Japanese artist Motoi Yamamoto’s incredibly detailed salt maze floor installations and continue to be mesmerized by the art he creates with his medium of choice. As Alice first explained, “Salt has a special place in the death rituals of Japan, and is often handed out to people at the end of funerals, so they can sprinkle it on themselves to ward off evil.” While the material holds great personal significance for Yamamoto, who had to come to terms with the tragic death of his sister at a young age, this piece reflects on the devastating effects of earthquakes.
The sculptural salt staircase known as Utsusemi is an amazing body of work that has been presented several times in Japan and even made its way to P.S.1 in New York. It is more than a simple stationary piece. The work, though sculptural in its structure, has an interactive element to it. Blocks of salt are stacked atop each other to form a narrow flight of stairs that crumble at the presence of a simulated earthquake. At once, the piece echoes architectural ruin as well as the pouring of salt for the lives lost in the aftermath of the natural disaster that is so prevalent in Japan.
The U.S. government recommends a cap of 2,300 milligrams of sodium per day, while the American Heart Association recommends no more than 1,500 milligrams per day to avoid risk for heart disease and stroke.
Sixty percent of cardiovascular deaths linked to salt intake occurred in men, and 40 percent occurred in women, the study showed. Heart attacks were responsible for more than 40 percent of the deaths, strokes were behind another 40 percent and other types of heart disease accounted for the rest. Nearly one million of all these deaths -- 40 percent of them -- were considered "premature" because they occurred in adults younger than 69 years old.
While the United States historically consumes a lot of salt -- with previous American Heart Association surveys showing Americans consume on average 3,400 milligrams per day -- this study found 84 percent of all deaths occurred in low and middle-income countries.
The U.S. ranked 19th out of 30 countries with 429 deaths per one million adults linked to eating too much salt -- or about one in 10 U.S. deaths. The top three countries with the highest death rates cited to be from salt intake were Ukraine (2,109 deaths per one million adults), Russia (1,803 per one million adults) and Egypt (836 per one million adults), the study found.
The fewest deaths linked to salt were reported in Qatar (73 per one million adults), Kenya (78 per one million adults) and the United Arab Emirates (134 per one million adults).
The findings were presented at the American Heart Association's 2013 Scientific Sessions in New Orleans, and are considered preliminary since they've yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal.
"National and global public health measures, such as comprehensive sodium reduction programs, could potentially save millions of lives," Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, lead study author and co-director of the Program in Cardiovascular Epidemiology at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, said in a statement.
The American Heart Association urges people to curb their salt intake and be away of the "salty six," which refers to the six common foods that comprise most of the sodium in American's diets. Those foods are: breads and rolls, cold cuts and cured meats, pizza, poultry, soup and sandwiches.
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Dr. Steven Nissen, chair of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, told Everyday Health that the study was flawed.
"They're trying to extrapolate millions of death based upon salt intake, but it's not based upon any data on mortality and salt," he said. "It's also based on an extrapolation of the effect of sodium on blood pressure, which is a very big reach, and not a reliable estimate of the burdens of salt."
Voor volwassenen geldt het advies om niet meer dan 6 gram zout per dag binnen te krijgen. Voor kinderen is dat minder (zie tabel). De nieren van baby’s en jonge kinderen kunnen nog niet veel zout aan. Voeg daarom geen zout toe aan het eten van je baby of kind.
Zout en natrium
De nadelige effecten op de gezondheid van zout worden vooral veroorzaakt door het natrium dat in zout zit. De hoeveelheid natrium kun je zelf uitrekenen door de hoeveelheid zout te delen door 2,5.
Maximale hoeveelheid zout per dag in grammen
Leeftijd Maximale hoeveelheid zout per dag in grammen Maximale hoeveelheid natrium per dag in grammen
0 tot 6 maanden Minder dan 1 Minder dan 0,4
7 tot 12 maanden 1 0,4
1 tot 3
jaar 3 1,2
4 tot 6
jaar 4 1,6
7 tot 10 jaar 5 2
ouder dan 10 jaar 6 2,4
As far back as 6050 BC, salt has been an important and integral part of the world’s history, as it has been interwoven into countless civilizations. Used as a part of Egyptian religious offerings and valuable trade between the Phoenicians and their Mediterranean empire, salt and history have been inextricably intertwined for millennia, with great importance placed on salt by many different cultures. Even today, the history of salt touches our daily lives. The word “salary” was derived from the word “salt.” Salt was highly valued and its production was legally restricted in ancient times, so it was historically used as a method of trade and currency. The word “salad” also originated from “salt,” and began with the early Romans salting their leafy greens and vegetables. Undeniably, the history of salt is both broad and unique, leaving its indelible mark in cultures across the globe.
Salt pond harvest
Most people probably think of salt as simply that white granular seasoning found in saltshakers on virtually every dining table.
It is that, surely, but it is far more. It is an essential element in the diet of not only humans but of animals, and even of many plants. It is one of the most effective and most widely used of all food preservatives. Its industrial and other uses are almost without number. Salt has great current interest as the subject of humorous cartoons, poetry and filmmaking.
The fact is that throughout history, salt—called sodium chloride by chemists—has been such an important element of life that it has been the subject of many stories, fables, folktales and fairy tales. It served as money at various times and places, and it has been the cause of bitter warfare. Offering bread and salt to visitors, in many cultures, is traditional etiquette. While records show the importance of salt in commerce in medieval times and earlier, in some places like the Sahara and in Nepal, salt trading today gives a glimpse of what life may have been like centuries ago.