Food for thought: Cutting back on salt may cause
you to eat more
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[September
28, 2013]
(BPT) --
Our bodies naturally crave
salt, a necessary nutrient, and research shows that we gravitate to
the amount we need for our bodies to function properly. Salt
deficiency has been linked to a host of health concerns, including
insulin resistance, increased risk of heart attacks and reduced
cognition. But what if eating less salt also increases your weight
by making you eat more? |
"Over the past 30 years, an interesting phenomenon has
occurred: The rates of obesity have dramatically gone up, but the
amount of salt we consume has remained fairly stable," says Mort
Satin of the Salt Institute. "Food producers have been lowering the
amount of salt they use, under pressure from the government and
consumer activists, so we are either eating a lot more food to get
the salt we need or have drastically lowered our activity levels, or
both." In the U.S., research shows that people have been consuming
about the same amount of salt on a daily basis for 50 years. And
around the world most people eat about the same amount of salt --
about 3,500 milligrams per day, according to the World Health
Organization. It appears that we all, when free to choose, eat
enough to keep us in a "safe range" between 2,300 milligrams and
4,600 milligrams a day, according to medical researcher Bjorn Folkow.
"It stands to reason that if the amount of salt in food is
lowered, we will eat more to get to our safe range," Satin says.
"More food equals more calories, and that means more weight gain,
unless we increased our physical activity to burn off the extra
calories."
This isn't news to those who raise livestock. According to Dr.
Rick Rasby, professor of animal science at the University of
Nebraska, cattlemen intentionally control the amount of salt in
cattle feed to either reduce the cost of feed or to fatten cows up
before sale. If they add more salt to the feed, the cows naturally
eat less. If they reduce the amount of salt, then the cows will eat
more.
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This instinct is driven by the body's physiology, designed to
maintain an efficient cardiovascular system, according to
researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine. This
vital life-sustaining system is found in fish, reptiles and all
mammals. This system is so robust that it contains multiple
fail-safe mechanisms. The body will actually retain salt if you try
to cut back too much. Of course, any excess salt is simply washed
away through natural processes when you drink water.
The irony is that for most of us there is no need to reduce the
amount of salt we consume, Satin says. Years of scientific evidence,
including recent research by Canadian scientists published in the
Journal of the American Medical Association, shows that eating the
levels of salt recommended by the American Heart Association or the
U.S. government would actually cause harm. Current recommendations
from the American Heart Association are as low as 1,500 milligrams
per day, an amount so low that European researchers, also writing in
JAMA, found it would increase the risk of heart attacks and early
death.
"The unintended consequence of the ongoing salt reduction
experiment may be an increase in obesity," Satin says. "More
research is needed, but meanwhile, individuals may want to focus on
a balanced diet and regular exercise, and remember that lowering the
salt in food may make you want to eat more."
[Brandpoint] |