If you just can’t get enough salt, chances are you could have been preconditioned for your addiction fresh out of the womb. It’s common knowledge that the American diet contains unhealthy levels of sodium. An infant salt study suggests efforts to curb America’s excessive sodium intake may need to start very early in life to be successful.
Treating sodium addiction
A 2010 report from the Institute of Medicine stated the average sodium intake of 3,436 milligrams a day for Americans over age 2 is more than double what is recommended. The Institute recommended new government standards reducing salt content in processed and restaurant food. But people’s attachment to salty flavors is a huge obstacle to bringing American sodium intake down.
Findings by the Monell Center in Philadelphia suggest that delaying exposure to sodium very early in life could eventually result in a population less fond of salt and high-sodium foods, which are raising blood pressure, increasing the risk of heart disease and stroke and costing billions of dollars.
The infant salt study
The research, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in December, found that six-month-old babies are more likely to enjoy the taste of salt if they have been fed starchy table foods such as cereal and crackers, the most common source of sodium for babies.
Once the affinity for salt has been imprinted, it endures. Once children in the study who were exposed to sodium as infants were in preschool age, they tended to prefer salty foods like potato chips, hot dogs and French fries.
Salting the cradle
Little research has been done about the biological mechanisms of sodium addiction. Scientists aren’t even sure what part of the brain is involved in tasting salt. What is known is that newborn babies really like sweet foods, absolutely reject bitter foods and the taste of salt doesn’t seem to register on their tiny palates. Monell clinic researchers gave 61 2-month old infants a mild saline solution and by their facial expressions, the babies were indifferent to the taste.
Six months later the babies returned to the clinic. Their parents were surveyed about the baby food and table foods the children ate. Table food is defined as food the rest of the family eats. Nearly half of the infants had been exposed to starchy foods high in sodium such as crackers, soft bread or cereal. Then the babies tasted from three bottles containing plain water, a mild saline solution and a stronger salty drink. During the bottle test, those babies exposed to table food consumed 55 percent more salt compared with babies who had not yet been exposed.
A few years later in preschool, some of the kids who started consuming sodium by the time they were six months old loved the taste of salt so much they licked the crystals off crackers or ate it straight from the shaker.
Reprogramming body & brain
The authors noted that their study only establishes an association between early consumption of sodium and a preference for salty foods– not a cause-and-effect relationship. However, it makes a lot of sense that not giving foods high in sodium to babies will make it easier for them to develop healthy eating habits as adults.
But just because you may have developed a preference for salty flavors early in life doesn’t necessarily mean that high blood pressure, heart disease or stroke will be your fate. Other studies have shown that when people are put on a low-sodium diet they develop a preference for less salty foods over time. The trick may be sticking with the low sodium diet long enough to allow your body and brain to re-adapt to a more natural state.
Source: New York Times, CNN, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post