Spicy food may reduce salt cravings

Research published in the American Heart Association's journal Hypertension suggests that eating spicy foods may help control salt cravings.

A large proportion of a person's daily intake of salt (75%) comes from high sodium levels in processed and prepackaged foods, making it hard to monitor. While the American Heart Association recommends consuming no more than 2300 mg of sodium per day — which is about 6 g of salt — most Australian adults have a daily salt intake of about 10 g. This can have dangerous health implications.

"Previously, a pilot study found that trace amounts of capsaicin, the chemical that gives chilli peppers their pungent smell, enhanced the perception of food being salty," said senior study author Zhiming Zhu, Professor and Director of the Department of Hypertension and Endocrinology at the Third Military Medical University. "We wanted to test whether this effect would also reduce salt consumption."

The study looked at 606 Chinese adults and determined their preferences for salty and spicy flavours before linking them to blood pressure.

The results found that Chinese participants who preferred spicy foods consumed less salt and had lower blood pressure than those with a low spicy preference, which could potentially reduce their risk of heart attack and stroke. Those who had high spicy preferences had 8 mm Hg lower systolic (upper) and 5 mm Hg lower diastolic (bottom) blood pressure numbers.

Researchers also examined two regions of the participants' brains, the insula and orbitofrontal cortex, which is known to be involved in tasting salt. They found that areas stimulated by salt and spice overlapped and spice further increased brain activity in areas activated by salt.

Based on this discovery, researchers suggested this increased activity likely makes people more sensitive to salt, meaning they appreciate foods containing less of it.

Zhu suggested ways to use spices to help reduce salt intake: "If you add some spices to your cooking, you can cook food that tastes good without using as much salt. Yes, habit and preference matter when it comes to spicy food, but even a small, gradual increase in spices in your food may have a health benefit."

However, all participants in the study were from China, which means results may not be generalised to other countries.