How does your salt consumption impact your risk of heart disease? New research suggests that the frequency in which you add salt to foods may increase or decrease your risk of heart disease and other heart conditions.

‍Study Summary

This new research, which relied on data from 176,570 participants, found that:

• Those who don’t add additional salt to their foods often, have a lower risk of heart-related events compared to those who regularly add extra salt.
• Those who are on a DASH diet and do not frequently add salt, have the lowest risk of heart disease. 

The DASH diet is a diet that was developed to reduce the risk of high blood pressure. It focuses on vegetable, fruit, whole grain, low-fat dairy, nut and legume consumption while limiting the consumption of red and processed meats.

The Hearty Take

This study adds to the narrative that high salt consumption may increase the risk of heart disease and heart-related conditions by increasing the likelihood of high blood pressure. Although the study is limited by self-reported dietary data, the results suggest that modifying how much extra salt and how frequently you add extra salt to your foods is a good way to reduce the risk for heart disease and heart-related conditions.