The Intersalt study was an observational study that showed an association between dietary salt, measured by urinary excretion, and blood pressure. The study was based on a sample of 10 079 men and women age 20-59 sampled from 52 populations spread across the world.

The results were disputed by the Salt Institute (the salt producers' trade organisation), who demanded that the results be handed over for re-analysis. A re-analysis was published in 1996 and the results were the same. The results have since been confirmed by the TOHP I and TOHP II studies.

In 1997 the science writer Gary Taubes

Gary Taubes

Gary Taubes is an American science writer.He is the author of Nobel Dreams , Bad Science: The Short Life and Weird Times of Cold Fusion , and Good Calories, Bad Calories , titled The Diet Delusion in the UK and Australia. His book Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It was released in December...

, published an article in Science Magazine

Science Magazine

Science Magazine was a half-hour television show produced by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation from 1975 to 1979.The show was hosted by geneticist David Suzuki, who previously hosted the daytime youth programme Suzuki On Science...

, which was heavily critical of the statistical analysis published by Intersalt. He criticized the failure to account for population heterogeneity in establishing the weak association between salt intake and blood pressure and the assumptions made when deploying regression dilution bias. He also cited the TOHP II study as showing only "negligible benefit of salt reduction".