14 DAY TRIAL // According to a recent study carried out by Finnish researchers, salt intake influences obesity risk and people who consume large amounts of salt on a regular basis are more prone to gaining weight and consuming beverages 'forbidden' in a healthy diet, such as fizzy or high energy drinks. Writing in the Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases Journal, scientists at the University of Helsinki and the University of Kuopio highlighted the fact that a wide range of foods have an increased content of salt, which leads to an urge to consume more sugary soft drinks. Inevitably, such a diet lacking in vitamins and nutritive compounds can only lead to weight gain, obesity and related serious conditions such as type-2 diabetes or cardiovascular disease.
Study authors Dr Heikki Karppanen of the University of Helsinki and Dr Eero Mervaala of the University of Kuopio wrote in their report: "The increased intake in salt since has apparently played an important role in the increase in the consumption of soft drinks and, hence, also in the increase in energy intake. Higher consumption of sweetened beverages was associated with both a greater magnitude of weight gain and an increased risk for development of type-2 diabetes."
Investigating medical data of Finland dwellers, both researchers concluded that a 30-35% decrease in the amount of salt intake throughout a 30-year period of time successfully will cut rates of mortality due to stroke and coronary heart disease by as much as 75 to 80%. Moreover, the lifespan of Finnish people has increased with an average of 6 to 7 years.
Consequently, reducing salt content in foods by less than 50% may considerably curb risks for conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, events such as heart attack or stroke and, without any doubt, the obesity pandemic will be held steady, if not lowered.
In conclusion, Finnish researchers urged that US Health Officials should consider reducing salt content in a large number of alimentary products, because consuming too much salt causes people to become thirsty and drink more soft drinks which are laden with sugar. Sugar has been previously shown by many studies to play a key-role in increasing rates of obesity, type-2 diabetes, heart disease etc.
In response to the hard criticism on harmful, even disastrous effects salt intake may have on individuals' health, Richard Hanneman, President of the Salt Institute, an association for salt producers, wrote in a letter addressed to Dr. Karppanen: "This claim that low-salt diets 'would be a powerful means against obesity' is just over the top. While salt intakes in the US have increased in the past 15 years, they track population increases. The US population is 300 million today. We've added 50 million in population in those years.
Of course, correlation is not causation, but to correlate salt intake with the rise in obesity ignores evidence that those on higher salt diets are actually leaner than other Americans. Just as obviously, the longest-lived national population in the world, the Japanese, have much higher salt intakes than Americans."