Consuming too much salt may push you towards obesity faster despite the number of calories you end up having from other foods. Scientists found in a recent study that every extra gram of salt that a person eats each day increases their risk of obesity by 25 per cent.
Professor Graham MacGregor of Queen Mary Univerity of London, who led the research team, said that they suspect that salt modifies the metabolism, altering the way the body absorbs fat. The team studied data for more than 450 children and 780 adults from the UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey 2008/2009 to 2011/2012.
Victoria Taylor, senior dietitian at the British Heart Foundation told the Daily Mail that, “It’s well established that we should be reducing the amount of salt we eat to help avoid high blood pressure, a risk factor for cardiovascular disease and the link between salt intake and obesity identified in this research could be another reason for us to do this.”
This study was published in the journal Hypertension.
