I find it more than a little coincidental and rather interesting that, prior to the latest Dietary Guidelines for America from the USDA and Department of Health and Human Services calling for cutbacks in sugar, solid fats and salt, a study hitting the MSM demonstrated how salty foods can affect the arteries of healthy people only a half-hour after eating them.

Sixteen healthy patients (evenly divided into two groups) received either a low-salt cup of tomato soup or one with 10 times the amount of salt, then had their blood pressures checked at half-hour intervals over a two-hour period. As the blood pressure cuff deflated, Australian researchers also used ultrasonic equipment to measure the size of their arteries. Later, the same tests were repeated with patients switching tomato soup snacks.

Patients who ate the salty soup each time consistently experienced the same problem with their arteries: Their ability to widen diminished by nearly 50 percent after just 30 minutes. Scientists theorize fats and salt may block the release of nitric oxide, a substance that allows the walls of arteries to relax, thus allowing vessels to expand and blood to follow more freely throughout the body. Although this narrowing was temporary (lasting two hours), medical experts believe consistently higher salt intakes leave folks vulnerable to hypertension down the road.

From a health benefit perspective, the effect of cutting your salt intake by 3 grams is similar to giving up smoking. So, what's stopping you?

Journal of Clinical Nutrition January 12, 2011

MSNBC January 27, 2011

Yahoo News January 31, 2011

MyFoxDetroit.com January 27, 2011