Salt Added To A High Fat Diet May Prevent Weight Gain, But It's Still Unhealthy

New findings published in the journal Scientific Reports reveal that a diet high in fat with increasing salt-intake may actually prevent weight gain.

Researchers at the University of Iowa found that adding high salt to a high-fat diet reduced the ability to gain weight in mice. However, health officials noted that the findings should not mean anyone should increase salt intake due to the findings, as high levels of dietary salt can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease in humans.

However, the researchers believe that the findings could potentially point to a profound effect on non-caloric dietary nutrients and how they may hold an effect on energy balance and weight gain.

"People focus on how much fat or sugar is in the food they eat, but [in our experiments] something that has nothing to do with caloric content -- sodium -- has an even bigger effect on weight gain," say Justin Grobe, PhD, assistant professor of pharmacology at the UI Carver College of Medicine and co-senior author of the study, in a news release.

For the study, researchers fed groups of mice different diets, including normal chow or high-fat chow with varying levels of salt (0.25 percent to 4 percent.) The mice on the higher-salt diet lost more weight, at about 15 grams over 16 weeks, when compared with the others.

"Our study shows that not all calories are created equal," Michael Lutter, co-senior study author and assistant professor of psychiatry, said in a statement. "Our findings, in conjunction with other studies, are showing that there is a wide range of dietary efficiency, or absorption of calories, in the populations, and that may contribute to resistance or sensitivity to weight gain."

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