Two UC Davis nutrition experts disagree with an official report released this week about American salt consumption.
The Institute of Medicine issued a report this week claiming that American consume too much salt and urged new government standards for sodium content in food.
But Judith Stern, a professor of nutrition and internal medicine, and David McCarron, an adjunct nutrition professor, published a study in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology that points to the contrary, according to the UC Davis news service.
They examined data from sodium intake studies and neuroscience research on the behaviors that drive people to consume salt and found evidence that humans naturally regulate their salt consumption within a narrow physiological range and that Americans' average salt intake falls within that range.
Stern and McCarron also suggest that government-led attempts to control salt "are simplistic, misguided and not based in science," the news release states.
The researchers advise people at special risk for high blood pressure and related diseases consult their doctor for nutritional advice, including appropriate salt intake levels.
Click here to read Stern and McCarron's study.
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