Salt Makes You Hungry, Not Thirsty, Study Says (sciencedaily.com)

wisebabo writes: Salty diet makes you hungry, not thirsty. Science Daily reports: "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." So if you don't want to gain weight on your trip to Mars, don't eat salty chips. If you don't want to gain weight at home, maybe you should stay away from them as well. From the report: "The studies were carried out by Natalia Rakova (MD, PhD) of the Charite and MDC and her colleagues. The subjects were two groups of 10 male volunteers sealed into a mock spaceship for two simulated flights to Mars. The first group was examined for 105 days; the second over 205 days. They had identical diets except that over periods lasting several weeks, they were given three different levels of salt in their food. The results confirmed that eating more salt led to a higher salt content in urine -- no surprise there. Nor was there any surprise in a correlation between amounts of salt and overall quantity of urine. But the increase wasn't due to more drinking -- in fact, a salty diet caused the subjects to drink less. Salt was triggering a mechanism to conserve water in the kidneys."

Comments

Monthly versus momentary salt intake

[raymorris]

I think there is a distinction between long term, over the course of weeks and months, vs short-term, in bar when you're currently eating salty food at the moment.

Eating more salt over the course of a month or two may certainly be associated with eating more that month. Maybe because french fries and chips taste better than unsalted potatoes.

In the very short term, at a bar, eating salty snacks definitely makes you thirsty at the moment - the body wants to balance the intake of salt and water - basically to the wash the salty taste out of your mouth, when it's very salty.

Pedantics unite!

[sootman]

In all my life, whenever someone said "eating salty food makes me thirsty", I don't think one of them ever meant "eating salty food makes me consume more water over a multi-month period." I'm pretty sure what they meant was "When I eat salty food, I want something to drink right goddamn now!" One thing I know for sure: every time I've expressed that sentiment, I was referring to the current moment.

dictionary.com says "thirsty [thur-stee] adjective, 1. feeling or having thirst; craving liquid." See? FEELING thirsty. CRAVING liquid. A feeling you're having RIGHT NOW. No mention of how much water you actually drank over the course of the next 105 days.

I'd love to see more details of the study. Maybe the ones who had salty food had more water with their meals but then the science kicked in and they had less water over the course of the day? It's entirely possible.