Benefit of a little less salt
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Americans consume an estimated 9 to 12 grams of salt a day, most of it in processed and prepared foods - from a can of soup to a slice of pepperoni pizza. Our daily salt consumption is about twice the recommended levels. Salt, and the sodium it contains, are linked to high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease, including heart attacks and stroke.
Researchers led by Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo of the University of California, San Francisco used a computer simulation to measure the effect of reducing dietary salt on the incidence of heart disease and stroke in the US population.
They found that if Americans cut salt consumption by just 3 grams a day - the equivalent of about half a teaspoon - cardiovascular disease would drop by up to 10 percent among all Americans, according to the model. That rate would fall even further - by 13 percent - among African-Americans, who are more likely to have high blood pressure, particularly the kind affected by salt.
"A very modest decrease in the amount of salt - hardly detectable in the taste of food - can have dramatic health benefits for the US," Bibbins-Domingo said in a statement.
BOTTOM LINE: Reducing salt consumption by as little as half a teaspoon a day could decrease rates of heart disease and stroke.
CAUTIONS: The estimates come from a computer simulation, rather than clinical trials.
WHERE TO FIND IT: Presented March 11 at the American Heart Association Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention.
ELIZABETH COONEY
New target in obesity fight
Long ago, when food was hard to come by, our ancestors' bodies depended on a highly efficient digestive system that quickly processed and stored fat, a very energy-dense nutrient. When resources got low, they could turn to their stored reserves for energy.But now, with fatty foods ubiquitous in the developed world, the systems our ancestors depended on have become a burden. We continue to absorb, package, and store fat efficiently despite the fact that we eat so much of it, leading to our current obesity epidemic.
A research group from the University of California, San Francisco, led by senior investigator Dr. Robert Farese, has joined the fight against obesity by studying the way the body absorbs and stores fat. Specifically, they have looked at an enzyme called MGAT2 - a protein in the intestine - that helps to package and distribute fat throughout the body.
Researchers tested whether deleting the gene responsible for MGAT2 would protect mice from obesity. They found that while mice lacking MGAT2 had normal food intake and absorption, the mice were protected from obesity even on high fat diets.
The reason? Without MGAT2, fat has trouble entering the circulation from the gut.
"We're basically crippling the system that leads to storing fat," says Farese. "Without MGAT2, fat enters the bloodstream at a very slow rate . . . and most of it ends up just burning away instead of being stored."
BOTTOM LINE: The intestinal protein MGAT2 is likely a promising target for drugs to fight obesity.
CAUTIONS: The study was done in mice - although human's MGAT proteins work similarly.
WHERE TO FIND IT: Nature Medicine, March 2009.
SUSHRUT JANGI
