The modern diet of processed foods, takeaways and microwave meals could be to blame for a sharp increase in autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, including alopecia, asthma and eczema.
A team of scientists from Yale University in the U.S and the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, in Germany, say junk food diets could be partly to blame.
‘This study is the first to indicate that excess refined and processed salt may be one of the environmental factors driving the increased incidence of autoimmune diseases,’ they said.
Junk foods at fast food restaurants as well as processed foods at grocery retailers represent the largest sources of sodium intake from refined salts.
The Canadian Medical Association Journal sent out an international team of researchers to compare the salt content of 2,124 items from fast food establishments such as Burger King, Domino’s Pizza, Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonald’s, Pizza Hut and Subway. They found that the average salt content varied between companies and between the same products sold in different countries.
U.S. fast foods are often more than twice as salt-laden as those of other countries. While government-led public health campaigns and legislation efforts have reduced refined salt levels in many countries, the U.S. government has been reluctant to press the issue. That’s left fast-food companies free to go salt crazy, says Norm Campbell, M.D., one of the study authors and a blood-pressure specialist at the University of Calgary.
Many low-fat foods rely on salt–and lots of it–for their flavor. One packet of KFC’s Marzetti Light Italian Dressing might only have 15 calories and 0.5 grams fat, but it also has 510 mg sodium–about 1.5 times as much as one Original Recipe chicken drumstick. (Feel like you’re having too much of a good thing? You probably are.
Bread is the No. 1 source of refined salt consumption in the American diet, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Just one 6-inch Roasted Garlic loaf from Subway–just the bread, no meat, no cheeses, no nothing–has 1,260 mg sodium, about as much as 14 strips of bacon.
How Refined Salt Causes Autoimmune Disease
The team from Yale University studied the role of T helper cells in the body. These activate and ‘help’ other cells to fight dangerous pathogens such as bacteria or viruses and battle infections.
Previous research suggests that a subset of these cells – known as Th17 cells – also play an important role in the development of autoimmune diseases.
In the latest study, scientists discovered that exposing these cells in a lab to a table salt solution made them act more ‘aggressively.’
They found that mice fed a diet high in refined salts saw a dramatic increase in the number of Th17 cells in their nervous systems that promoted inflammation.
They were also more likely to develop a severe form of a disease associated with multiple sclerosis in humans.
The scientists then conducted a closer examination of these effects at a molecular level.
Laboratory tests revealed that salt exposure increased the levels of cytokines released by Th17 cells 10 times more than usual. Cytokines are proteins used to pass messages between cells.
Study co-author Ralf Linker, from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, said: ‘These findings are an important contribution to the understanding of multiple sclerosis and may offer new targets for a better treatment of the disease, for which at present there is no cure.’
Related articles
- Scientists Officially Link Processed Foods To Autoimmune Disease (blacklistednews.com)
- Scientists Officially Link Processed Foods To Autoimmune Disease (wakingtimes.com)
- International Study: Excess Dietary Salt May Drive The Development Of Autoimmune Diseases (medicalnewstoday.com)
- Study: Too much salt may trigger autoimmune disease (foxnews.com)
- Salt may be Linked to Autoimmune Disease, Average American Consumes 50 Percent more than Recommended Daily Amount (scienceworldreport.com)
- Salt Linked To Autoimmune Diseases (Slashdot) (science.slashdot.org)
- Too much salt may trigger autoimmune diseases (dailystar.com.lb)
- High Salt Consumption Linked to Growing Autoimmune Disease Rates in Western Societies (natureworldnews.com)
- Eating Too Much Salt May Lead to Multiple Sclerosis, Other Autoimmune Disorders (counselheal.com)
- Salty Food Contributes to Multiple Sclerosis in Mice (blogs.discovermagazine.com)
Reblogged this on euzicasa and commented:
And who knows exactly how many types of cancer, and yet the wheels of deceit, keep on spinning, without hope in sight!
Sad truth is they will continue to get away with it as long as the coffers are full and the officials in charge can be persuaded to find in their favor 😦
What is the grossest thing, is that they are in this too, and most of them are stupid enough to believe in their own lies! Few wake up, after coming down with some untreatable disease and they become fighter for collecting money for treating them, but nothing, about the causation and the response! And this is not pessimism, it is realism, as you well know.
Nice talk, George.
Perhaps that is how they sleep at night . They completely disassociate themselves from the truth? Either that or they have no conscience and their raising money for these causes are to white wash and prop up the facade they have created to represent them. The psychological ramifications are endless, lol
I think I head this In “Nikita”: “Live the lie, until the lie becomes your life”. May be that what really happen, and there are numerous reason for that to occur with time. But that, is not an excuse, of course. I know that if one wants to be true to oneself, it is possible, no matter what the adversity, some just choose the highroad! 🙂
I think that would require a certain level or ethics 😉
You are right, but in a greedy driven society, there is no place for ethics, o but we sure require it at all level of public, and government, and so on…See they think that if it looks good enough in paper, it sure makes a nice window show! That’s what I think, more and more often, and I have no doubt, that this will be for a long time to come!
Why do you think there is such outrage when a decision or statement is made that is questioned? Look at the way McCain and Graham claimed that for Rand Paul to even pose the question of the Administration being able to legally use drones to target Americans on American soil would be legal possible, was offensive. Really ?
Now I am no politician, but it seems to me it is a legitimate concern of the American people. given their complete disregard for rule of law and human life. As Public Servants they would do well to try and have those concerns addressed , or so one would think. However, the opposite has become true on Capitol Hill. The concerns of the people are belittled and ridiculed as ludicrous and offensive. Yet the fact that they are obscenely overpaid, have their hands in the cookie jar more oft than not and get away with breaking many laws that would land a common citizen in jail does not afford them the insight into the small fact that they have no right to question the validity of the Peoples concerns. Their job is to address , plain and simple. I am not a Rand Paul fan, but the Administration has been thumbing their noses at the concerns of the people over this matter for months now. It was his determination that elicited a response.
This is the way to get them moving, make it as uncomfortable as possible for as long as possible until they either decide it is not worth it , or are given no choice in the face of the pressure being placed on them in the public eye. After all, they know they are lying, they just don’t want to get caught or be exposed as liars, lol
They think Power overcomes all obstacles: that places them above the law!
Yes indeed they do . Unfortunately for them Nature has her own set of laws and they neither have loopholes nor can they be circumvented by greed or shady lawyers , lol
And that what they keep forgetting, that in the end, no matter what… mother nature is the longest survivor of the planet: only natural laws of existence have a chance of survival! We evolved from it due to advantageous surrounding, and we cannot destroy those surroundings without destroying ourselves!
How much readily to understand can it get? 🙂
Apparently in that journey through the evolutionary process some of us were gifted with common sense and others where deprived 😉