In fact, the effect of excessive sodium is thought to be so bad for the heart that the World Health Organization (WHO) believe that we should all lower our salt intake by 30 percent if we want to avoid chronic disease. The WHO also want tobacco use lowered by the same percentage.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warn that a high concentration of sodium in one's diet "can raise blood pressure," which is a "major risk factor for heart disease and stroke."
The American Heart Association (AHA) also caution that people should not consume more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium every day. But is simply knowing that we need to cut down on salt enough to be able to do so?
Not quite. Salt cravings are underpinned by a complex neurological process, parts of which we have only just started to identify.
The new study was supervised by Dr. Zhiming Zhu, a professor and director of the Department of Hypertension and Endocrinology at the Third Military Medical University in Chongqing, China.
Dr. Zhu explains the motivation for his research, saying, "Previously, a pilot study found that trace amounts of capsaicin, the chemical that gives chili peppers their pungent smell, enhanced the perception of food being salty."
"We wanted to test whether this effect would also reduce salt consumption," adds Dr. Zhu.
'Spicy foods may reduce salt preference'
Dr. Zhu and team examined 606 Chinese adults as part of a "multicenter, random-order, double-blind observational and interventional study."They analyzed the participants' preferences for spicy and salty tastes and found that those with a high preference for spicy tastes tended to consume less salt than those with a low preference for spicy food.
Also, the systolic blood pressure of those who preferred spicy tastes was lower by 8 millimeters of mercury, and the diastolic blood pressure was lower by 5 millimeters of mercury than that of participants who preferred salty tastes.
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