> It sounds like you're suggesting that people eat as much salt as they like. Where's the harm in cutting back on the salt?
Cutting too much on salt is indeed harmful http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyponatremia - up until 30 years ago or so, hyponatremia because of too little salt intake was virtually unheard of in the west, and now it is rare but not unheard of, because some people take the "cut back on salt" recommendations seriously.
What's the harm in eating only bland food? No harm. Also no harm in cutting back on listening to your favorite music. But why on earth would you do that? It's no different than avoiding alcohol or pork for religious reasons, or not driving on a saturday for the same religious reasons. If you like it, no one is stopping you. But it is based on blind faith, rather than science.
> But what dietary guidelines would you recommend to someone?
I was going to quote Pollen, but you beat me to it :) I think another recommendation from Pollen is helpful: "Do not eat anything that your grand-grandmother wouldn't have recognized as food".
Personally, given that I've found so much evidence that the "common knowledge" is wrong, I look at the fringes hoping to find something more useful. To that end, I recommend following the blogs (and mostly, but not exactly, the advice) of Dave Asprey (Bulletproof Executive) Tim Ferris (4 Hour Body) Paul Jaminet, Gary Taubes, Stephan Guyonet, Mark Sisson ... start browsing any of them and you'll find the others.