Black vs. African American -- inaccuracies in medical publication

In an embarrassing echo of "politically correct" language from the 1990's, a scientific press release illustrates why black people should be called black people:
New FDA Nutrition Labels Will Help Consumers Choose More Wisely, Says American Heart Association 
http://newsroom.heart.org/news/new-fda-nutrition-labels-will-help-consumers-choose-more-wisely-says-american-heart-association 
... 
Finally, we applaud the agency’s requirement that potassium, a key nutrient, will now be listed on food labels. We know that diets high in potassium help decrease the negative impact of sodium. This is especially true for African-Americans, who consume less potassium, tend to be more sensitive to sodium and have higher prevalence of high blood pressure than other people.
The faux pas here suggests that black people (even "people of African descent") have a higher sensitivity to sodium (Rosalind, 2000) but only while located in America but not, for example, Mexico. Of course this interpretation is wrong and sounds like they are recommending to export the blacks from America to reduce the negative impact of sodium!



Works cited:

Rosalind M. Peters, MSN, RN, John M. Flack, MD. Salt Sensitivity and Hypertension in African Americans: Implications for Cardiovascular Disease. MPH Disclosures Prog Cardiovasc Nurs. 2000;15(4)

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And also, the Rosalind article makes the conclusion "Salt sensitivity has been found to be more prevalent in young, old, normotensive, and hypertensive African Americans than Caucasians" using these sources:
  • Luft F, Grim C, Fineberg N, et al. Effects of volume expansion and contraction in normotensive whites, blacks, and subjects of different ages. Am J Cardiol. 1979;59:643-650.
  • Luft F, Miller J, Grim C, et al. Salt sensitivity and resistance of blood pressure: Age and race as factors in physiological responses. Hypertension. 1991;17(suppl I)I102-I108.
  • Falkner B, Katz S, Canessa M, et al. The response to long-term sodium loading in young blacks. Hypertension. 1986;8(suppl I):I165-I168.
  • Weinberger M, Miller J, Luft F, et al. Definitions and characteristics of sodium sensitivity and blood pressure resistance. Hypertension. 1986;8(suppl II):II127-II134.
So you can see what happened full circle:

  1) Scientists have accurately demonstrated differences in diet response among human races in the 70's and 80's
  2) Medical reviews in the 90's and 2000's used "political correctness" and used inaccurate wording for their publication
  3) Internet trolls in the 10's are using misquoted medical studies to influence domestic policy and support race-based deportation

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