Do We "train" Our Children To Love Salt?
Author: Dean Rouseberg
Time for reading: ~2
minutes
Last Updated:
August 08, 2022
The mechanism of taste buds for sweet and bitter has been elucidated, but experts still have no idea how those for salt work.
The habit of feeding young children high- sodium foods may cause a child to develop a thirst for salt that will last a lifetime, according to a new study. Salt
consumption among the population has increased significantly over the past 50 years , and the present study may be useful in looking for ways to reverse the process. Leslie Stein, a senior researcher at the Monell Chemical Sciences Center , explains that we were created to like salt, we need it to survive, but the amounts we take in must be much smaller . Sodium helps regulate blood pressure, to send messages to the nerves, and also plays a role in muscle contractions. However, when the intake exceeds the permissible limits, high blood pressure can occur - a risk factor for cardiovascular disease and stroke.
Scientists are aware that people love salt , but they do not know why. The mechanism of taste buds for sweet and bitter has been elucidated, but experts still have no idea how those for salt work.
On the other hand, from the moment of birth, we already have a built-in sense of preference for sweets and intolerance of bitter taste. However, we are indifferent to salt in the first few months of our lives.
Participate in the study61 babies , aged between two and six months. They drink from three bottles, the first of which contains water, the second with 1% saline solution, which resembles the salinity of chicken soup with noodles, and one bottle with 2% saline solution.
After drinking from each bottle, the researchers compared the amount consumed with the bottles of saline with that in the bottle of clean water. Babies who drank more than "salty" bottles were classified as preferring salt and those who drank less as those who rejected it.
Babies who consumed the same amount of saline and water were defined as indifferent.
The researchers found that at 2 months of age, the little ones were indifferent to the solution with 1% salinity and rejected that with 2%. At six months, however, some of them already have developed taste buds for salt. Children who have meanwhile started eating foods rich in sodium show a preference for saline solutions.
On the other hand, those who still adhere to baby foods , as well as lower salt content such as fruits and vegetables , remain indifferent or reject them.
The results of the study do not prove that early consumption of salty foods necessarily leads to its preference in later life. It points to the connection between the two, as well as a way for parents to reduce the risk of their child becoming a zealous salt lover later.
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