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Is it true that salt and sugar are bad for our health?
Apr 6, 2013

Dr. Ziad Mansour Thoracic Surgery
In healthy subjects, salt and sugar should be well metabolized and will normally cause no harm.

Studies have shown that the long term intake of salt will cause vasoconstriction (generalized narrowing of small arteries due to activation of vessel wall muscles) and thus might cause hypertension even in healthy subjects.
Salt should be added moderately to food. No salt added is even better.

Concerning sugar, even in healthy subjects, excess sugar which is well metabolized will cause weight gain especially if no excercises are performed. This will cause weight gain, especially in fat tissue. This might cause on the long term a metabolic syndrom which is an association of diseases.
Caution is of utmost importance for healthy subjects with a familial history of diabetes, since they are at risk of becoming diabetic at a certain age.
Sugar should be ingested in moderate amounts; physical exercises are the best way to burn the energy it produces, and lose fat tissue it causes.
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