SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
We've all heard it: eating salty foods makes you thirstier. But what sounds like good nutritional advice turns out to be an old-wives' tale. In a study carried out during a simulated mission to Mars, an international group of scientists has found exactly the opposite to be true. "Cosmonauts" who ate more salt retained more water, weren't as thirsty, and needed more energy.
For some reason, no one had ever carried out a long-term study to determine the relationship between the amount of salt in a person's diet and his drinking habits. Scientists have known that increasing a person's salt intake stimulates the production of more urine -- it has simply been assumed that the extra fluid comes from drinking. Not so fast! say researchers from the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC), Vanderbilt University and colleagues around the world.
[...] Before the study, the prevailing hypothesis had been that the charged sodium and chloride ions in salt grabbed onto water molecules and dragged them into the urine. The new results showed something different: salt stayed in the urine, while water moved back into the kidney and body. This was completely puzzling to Prof. Jens Titze, MD of the University of Erlangen and Vanderbilt University Medical Center and his colleagues. "What alternative driving force could make water move back?" Titze asked.
Experiments in mice hinted that urea might be involved. This substance is formed in muscles and the liver as a way of shedding nitrogen. In mice, urea was accumulating in the kidney, where it counteracts the water-drawing force of sodium and chloride. But synthesizing urea takes a lot of energy, which explains why mice on a high-salt diet were eating more. Higher salt didn't increase their thirst, but it did make them hungrier. Also the human "cosmonauts" receiving a salty diet complained about being hungry.
So, to reduce your portions and lose weight, eat less salt?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 19 2017, @09:00PM (7 children)
I adopted a very-low-sodium diet some time ago, and it's amazing how very salty food at restaurants now tastes. The same thing happens when you adopt a low-sugar diet: Big Food's choices become sickly sweet.
Here's the American story:
Why tears? Because the addict would often rather die than go through the withdrawal symptoms that accompany giving up his poison of choice.
The American people (and, by extension, the people of Western countries) are very sick people; hold on tight, because it's going to get worse before it gets better.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Wednesday April 19 2017, @09:12PM (3 children)
We need a +1 Depressing mod. It's true. Everything good is bad for you, and everything bad, is good for you. If there is Intelligent Design, then God has a weird sense of humor.
Interesting research too. I eat way too much salt and I know it. It was easy to do since I have the genetics that gives me low blood pressure issues instead and it never affected my health dramatically. Plus, salt is good. The thing is, if you smoke weed on occasion, you will never notice that extra hunger. At all. It's a spoonful of gasoline added to a volcano.
This does make me want to try a low sodium diet to see if it results in more weight loss.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday April 19 2017, @11:57PM (2 children)
> Everything good is bad for you, and everything bad, is good for you.
It's always a question of reasonable quantities, like for Iocane powder.
Except chocolate. Do not even suggest touching at my giant intake of chocolate, and nobody gets hurt.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Thursday April 20 2017, @05:39AM (1 child)
I completely understand, and will offer to you a chocolate non-aggression pact:
-- EdIII 2017/4/19
-- *you sign here*
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday April 20 2017, @05:31PM
You may optionally not get stabbed repeatedly upon the discovery of more (high-quality) chocolate than I would be physically capable of ingesting, for the rest of my days or until it gets deeply rotten.
In addition to this extraordinary gesture of leniency, you are hereby entitled the exclusive rights to anything manufactured by the Hershey company for the US markets (god have mercy on those heretics).
(Score: 2) by jimtheowl on Thursday April 20 2017, @03:31AM (2 children)
The solution is easy enough: learn to cook and stop relying on restaurants. You really stop liking restaurants once you get used to good cooking, and your money is better invested.
As far as salt, keep using it in moderation. Spices can more than make up for the difference in taste.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Thursday April 20 2017, @08:36AM (1 child)
You probably could pre-cook your lunch at home. But then you couldn't go to lunch with your colleagues, as typically eating your own food is not permitted in the restaurant.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by jimtheowl on Thursday April 20 2017, @05:39PM