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Over-consumption of salty foods is not fuelled by stress, but because the food supply is already saturated with too much of salt, says a new study.In trying to identify triggers for our increasing appetite for salt, Deakin University health researchers Susan Torres, Anne Turner and Caryl Nowson, professor, have considered potential physiological factors such as stress.
“The primitive drive for salt is no longer evident in modern day humans,” Torres said. “This is not surprising given that the current food supply is so saturated with salt that most people are consuming amounts in excess of what the body requires.”
“It was proposed over 20 years ago that the salt intake of a society reflected the levels of stress and a physiological drive for salt would have been observed in our ancestors,” Torres said.
“Primitive humans developed processes to deal with stress (for example escaping a charging lion) such as increased blood pressure and heart rate.
"Responses to stress could also result in depletion in salt and consequently an increase in salt appetite to replace this salt,” added Torres.
Researchers evaluated evidence from animal and human studies to determine if stress induced a salt appetite in modern day humans, as it would have done in primitive times.
In reviewing recent research they found that this drive for salt after stress was reported in animals but was not evident in modern day humans, said a Deakin University release.
Australians are eating up to 18 times more salt than is recommended, resulting in increasing rates of hypertension which is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease.
These findings were published in a recent issue of the British Journal of Nutrition.
