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Does Salt Make You Fat ? New Research About Salt And Weight Gain

Med Coolman | Thursday, July 14, 2016 | | | |

Fries and salt on the table

Many people are wondering about the link between salt and weight gain (or weight loss) so they are asking numerous questions: Can Salt Prevent You From Losing Weight? Can Eating Salt Prevent Weight Loss? Does salt make you fat? A New Australian Research may have the answer to all these questions.


Excess fat consumption has been linked to the development of obesity. Fat and salt are a common and appetitive combination in food; however, the effect of either on food intake is unclear. Fat taste sensitivity has been negatively associated with dietary fat intake, but how fat taste sensitivity influences the intake of fat within a meal has, to our knowledge, not yet been investigated.

The goals of this new study were to investigate the effects of both fat and salt on ad libitum food intake and, second, to investigate the effects of fat taste sensitivity on satiation responses to fat and whether this was affected by salt.

Forty-eight healthy adults, 16 men, and 32 women, aged 18–54 years old, with a BMI between 17.8 and 34.4, were recruited to participate in this study. They attended 4 lunchtime sessions after a standardized breakfast. Meals consisted of elbow macaroni with sauce; sauces were manipulated to low-fat/low-salt, low-fat/high-salt, high-fat/low-salt and high-fat/high-salt.


Also read: Obesity Could Cause 670,000 New Cancer Cases By 2035

The study found that Salt increased food and energy intakes by 11%, irrespective of if the fat content was high or low. The fat content of the meal didn’t result in people eating more food by weight, but because of its greater energy density, that meant more kilojoules were eaten.

People who were considered to be sensitive to the taste of fat ate less of the high-fat meal, but only if it was also low in salt. Ratings of hunger before, and fullness after, each meal were similar and unaffected by the meal composition.

The results of this research suggest that salt promotes passive overconsumption of energy in adults and that salt may override fat-mediated satiation in individuals who are sensitive to the taste of fat. This means that the saltiness of food is being able to influence passive over-consumption for foods high fat. 


In a time when there are too many discretionary food choices available that meet the criteria for being high in fat and salt, then this research helps explain why such food could be an important driver of excess eating and subsequent weight gain. So if you still asking yourself, does salt make me fat ? does salt prevent weight loss ? in the light of this study, I would say yes definitely.



Besides that, Salt has been proved to be linked to high blood pressure and heart disease as well. 

Salt, Sodium, Health - infographic
Salt, Sodium, Health - Infographic

For more latest obesity, nutrition, and weight loss research visit this page: Latest Studies and Research

Related Tags: salt and weight loss, does salt make you fat, sodium and weight loss, salt and weight gain.



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