Is it that Important that Big Brother Should Enforce Natural

Is it that Important that Big Brother Should Enforce Natural Ways to Lower Blood Pressure

A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine recently somehow managed to shake up the entire country; people are suddenly talking animatedly about individual rights, Big Brother, where big government draws the line, not to mention the right to go out to a meal and be guaranteed a good full-bodied taste. The scientific study goes and says that if people could manage to season their food with less salt by even a small amount, they would reduce their risk of falling to blood pressure-induced heart disease and strokes as much as they would if they happened to give up smoking, or for that matter, a big fat paunch. As much sense as natural ways to lower blood pressure and heart disease such as these make, the general public seems to bristle at the very thought that the government might intrude so much in their lives.

The study doesn't just mention a few vague possibilities; it makes its case with accessible statistics, and easy to grasp everyday examples. For instance, if everyone undertook to defer to a few natural ways to lower blood pressure and heart disease like bringing down their salt consumption by only a half teaspoon a day, the country would go through nearly a hundred thousand fewer heart attacks each year, and nearly that many fewer deaths from heart disease. Where does most of the salt in our diet come from? From our partiality for chips, and dip, and salt-encrusted pretzels, and a hundred other processed and packaged goodies on the supermarket shelves, of course.

The city council in New York has led the charge for Citizen health; the Council is urging restaurants and food manufacturers to bring down the quantity of salt they use in their food by a quarter over the next five years. And the food that is served at public schools and other public establishments across the state, will be given salt limits too. The independent research institution, Institute of Medicine, is preparing a salt intake recommendation that will help. What is more, the Food and Drug Administration is no longer going to list salt as food; from now on, salt will be listed as an additive. The government has tried for close to a half century to get the citizens of the country to try natural ways to lower blood pressure and heart disease, without government goading. It hasn't worked so far; the kind of clear and ready-made information found in this latest report is likely to give the government's plan some extra teeth.

And yet, not everyone is convinced; to call salt as dangerous as tobacco smoke, is clearly unacceptable to many physicians. In their experience, salt intake does not account for much change in a patient's blood pressure levels; but anecdotal evidence does suggest a certain amount of definite improvement. And the great thing about picking natural ways to lower blood pressure is, that even a small beginning could potentially bring on great tangible benefits. You could never say that about tobacco, now could you?