But whether you're a fresh water economist or a salt water one, empirical analysis - working out what's actually going on in the economy - depends on knowing the facts.

BBC: The Nobel prize, and the ONS

Of course, one learns to take any poll analysis with a grain of salt.

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The same analysis warns of the difficulties of attaining an even dispersal of salt in bacon, and the impact of laws restricting the use of nitrates as a preservative.

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The Times piece was somewhat based on the conclusions of a meta analysis by the well respected Cochrane Review that surveyed a number of salt studies and which also found no clear benefit from reducing salt.

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