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Comment by swang | Hacker News Reader

Here is a video from Dr. Robert Lustig about sugars. It is an hour and a half long but very informative.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM

After watching it, I've considerably reduced my sugar intake. I still drink soft drinks during lunch/dinner, but I am slowly weaning myself off them and onto water/tea and other better alternatives.

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I watched that a while ago and I remember him talking about the amount of salt in a Coke, as though it were a conspiracy of some kind.

But Coke has very little salt -- about 45 mg.

So the rest of the talk seemed to be colored with a conspiratorial tone, from my perspective. Am I wrong to be so dismissive?

I had the same reaction when he went off on the public restriction on alcohol (52m), but the science sounded reasonable. With that in mind, I cut my sugar and carb intake. I lost fat. So, I chalk it up to his personality or a reaction to being ignored for a long period of time.

I do not know whether 45 mg is a small or large amount of salt. But his main point is that that salt is there to make you feel thirsty after drinking a soda.

In my personal experience he is correct there. Soda does not quench my thirst and leaves me feeling thirsty.

1 teaspoon is (very) approximately 5 grams. There are 1000 mg in 1 g; thus 5000 mg in 5 g.

So 50 mg is 100th of a teaspoon of salt. Roughly.

EDIT: This UK health advice suggests that adults should have less than 6 g of salt per day.

(http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/Goodfood/Pages/salt.aspx)

But this Scientific American Article suggests that there's no evidence for that.

(http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=its-time-to...)

The coke I've drank in the past has been loaded with salt. But salt isn't really the most dangerous ingredient in coke... is it

>But Coke has very little salt -- about 45 mg.

This tells me nothing. 45mg per 100ml? Or per serving (usually 250ml)?

It's about 40mg of sodium (which is about 100mg of salt) per 12-oz can, which is 355ml.

It doesn't really make much difference. It's a small amount of salt for any reasonable level of consumption unless you are really watching your salt intake.

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