Health Tips: This diet hack will help curb your salt cravings

Eating these foods tricks your body into eating less salt, a new study suggests.

If you’re constantly trying to tame your cravings for potato chips and French fries, listen up: eating spicy foods might help to curb your hankering for something salty, according to new research from China.

For the study, which was published in the journal Hypertension, researchers had 606 adults do a taste test using solutions containing salt or capsaicin—a component that gives peppers their heat—to determine the study participants’ sensitivity and preference to those flavors. Then they had the participants complete a food questionnaire to identify how often they ate certain salty or spicy foods. Urine samples and blood pressure tests were also taken.

The researchers concluded that people who ate spicy foods the most consumed less salt—about 2.5 grams less per day. They also had lower blood pressure readings than those who ate the least amount of spicy foods.

That’s because turning up the heat might actually trick you brain into eating less salt. “We found that the enjoyment of spicy food can enhance salty taste sensitivity by modifying the salty taste in the brain,” study author Zhiming Zhu, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Center for Hypertension and Metabolic Diseases at Daping Hospital in Chongqing, China told Men's Health.

When the researchers used brain imaging scans to examine two regions of the study participants’ brains—both of which are involved in your salty taste perception—they found that spicy foods increased activity in areas that are stimulated by salt, says Dr. Zhu.

He and his team theorize that this heightened activity could make you more sensitive to the taste of salt, meaning you could enjoy your food just as much while adding less of it.

But do you need to be worried about eating less salt? Not necessarily. Salt is essential to your health, because your body can’t produce it on its own and needs it to function properly.

Most Americans consume way more than the American Heart Association’s (AHA) recommended limit of 2,400 milligrams of salt per day. But for the average, healthy guy, that’s not always a huge deal. In fact, research suggests that cutting your intake too much can put you at risk for dehydration and low blood pressure.

That said, you probably don’t need to try and eat more salt. About 70 percent of Americans get their salt from processed foods, rather than sprinkling the shaker. That can be a problem, since foods like chips, bread, and bottled pasta sauce also tend to pack more sugar and empty calories—which can lead to other health issues, like weight gain or diabetes, when eaten in excess.

Plus, if you’re one of the 56 percent of Americans with high blood pressure, or if you’re dealing with other heart issues, you should limit your salt intake to 1,500 mg per day, the AHA says.

Wanting to dial back your salt consumption isn’t a bad thing if you find yourself at constant war with those bags of potato chips. In that case, incorporating more spicy flavors into your diet is a great strategy if you’re trying to wean yourself off. Even eating a small amount of spicy foods daily may be beneficial, says Dr. Zhu.

And if you can’t take the heat? “Some peppers are not spicy at all, but also contain capsaicin,” says Dr. Zhu. Bell peppers are a good option, since they tend to be sweeter.

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