Eating too salty foods can have bad health consequences : I guess we all know that, right? Above all, it carries risks for cardiovascular health. Yet, research published in Cell Metabolism sheds new light on the effects of salt: a positive light, for which salt could be useful in countering inflammatory processes caused by bacteria, would be a very powerful antifungal and would help the immune system (therefore also metabolism). I had personally heard before that salt increased metabolism, sleep quality, and helped the thyroid. Probably, if it increases the immune defenses, it may be true that it also improves the metabolism. But back to the research: according to a group of German researchers from the University of Regensburg, in Germany, salt would be a useful weapon for the body to fight bacterial proliferation. Those on a low-sodium or salt-free diet could get infected more easily.
In short, according to the study of these German researchers, salt is a natural antibiotic. In particular, eating more salty would favor the salinity of epithelial cells, the first barrier against external microbes and pathogens.
And with the high pressure, how do we put it? The researchers explain that this discovery does not want to pass the message that a diet rich in salt is good for you. Certainly, a low-sodium diet can be useful for those with cardiovascular problems and hypertension. But perhaps a salt-free diet is harmful in any case . Also because it lowers the immune system.