Salt doesn’t make you thirsty
<p>Salt actually makes you hungrier not thirstier, according to a new study.</p>
<p>German researchers at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) studied two separate groups of 10 men during a simulation of a trip to Mars at the German Aerospace Center.</p>
<p>Over 200 days the "cosmonauts" were given identical diets except for their salt intake. Results of the investigations published in the <em>Journal of Clinical Investigation</em> found that a salty diet actually caused the men on the high salt diets to drink less.</p>
<p>The men who ate more salt, retained more water, weren't as thirsty and needed more energy, according to the findings.</p>
<p>Scientists have known that increasing a person's salt intake stimulates the production of urine and it has been assumed that the extra fluid comes from drinking more because they were thirsty.</p>
<p>But it now appears that salt triggers a mechanism in the kidney that causes the kidneys to hold onto water and produce urea - a process which consumes energy, causing hunger not thirst.</p>
<p>"Nature has apparently found a way to conserve water that would otherwise be carried away into the urine by salt," said Freidrich Luft from the MDC.</p>
<p>Studies in mice have previously hinted that the production of urea was responsible for this increased appetite, Luft added.</p>
<p>Urea is a compound and is the end product of protein metabolism. It is formed in the liver and excreted by the kidneys in the urine. It is generally thought of as a waste product but Luft said that's wrong.</p>
<p>"Instead it turns out to be a very important osmolyte, a compound that binds to water and helps transport it," said Prof Luft.</p>
<p>"Its function is to keep water in when our bodies get rid of salt."</p>
<p><em>Written by Sarah Wiedersehn. First appeared on <a href="http://Stuff.co.nz" target="_blank"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Stuff.co.nz</span></strong></a>.</em></p>
