It's pretty much generally accepted that salt is bad for your blood pressure..my question is that when I shop in my local Asian market almost everything has massive amounts of sodium...even the "reduced" has more than what I would consider normal amounts...how is that Asian people don't all have high blood pressure?
Salt doesn't raise everyone blood pressure, but it does work against potassium.
I have always had low blood pressure and once ate all whole foods with little added salt. I had to start adding salt to foods to keep my blood pressure up and to balance the level of potassium (or maybe balancing the potassium is what raised my pressure? Forget)
Sodium works against potassium so if you eat a food high in potassium, like lentils, beans, and you add too much salt you're lowering the absorption of potassium. Many people, most omnis, don't get enough potassium. I've seen about 4 ambulances take people who've fainted from low potassium levels to the hospital for potassium drips.
[Here] is an up-to-date map of world high blood pressure incidence by country. There is only one little fragment of asia where people do not have more high blood pressure than the US [the koreas].
Salt also harms the functioning of the vascular endothelium, which is why salt is largely blamed for japan being the stroke capital of the world.
Salt is only one factor in blood pressure, just eating more whole plants and less animal products will drop elevated blood pressure significantly more than reducing salt intake.
When people say 'mediterranean' or 'asian' diets are healthy they are not actually referring to 'mediterranean' or asian diets. They are referring to diets followed in small parts of those regions a hundred years ago and combined with very active lifestyles. Right now the incidence of food-originated health problems are exploding in asia and the mediterranean because they are eating the things they are selling to the west, and buying from the west.
In summary: Junk food from any ethnicity store is still junk food
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