Study of Russian cosmonauts may change thinking on salt

Russian cosmonaut study may change thinking on salt. Ali Gorman reports on Action News at 5 p.m. on May 10, 2017.

A new study with Russian cosmonauts may upset some longtime assumptions about the effects of salt.

In simulated space missions, scientists put the cosmonauts on diets with different sodium levels.

On the higher sodium diets, they actually drank less and they complained of always being hungry.

When researchers repeated the experiments with mice, they noticed the high-sodium mice also burned more calories.

They suspect salt triggers hormone changes that burn fat.

Restaurants, takeout biggest contributors to sodium intake

It's no secret Americans eat too much salt. Many people are trying to cut down, but they may be focusing on the wrong culprits.

But until they fully understand this, people should still try to reduce sodium in their diets.

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