Salty diet may make you drink less water and eat more

Salty food will diminish your thirst and increase your hunger, due to the reason of higher need of energy, a new study conducted during a stimulated mission to Mars reveals.

According to the study 'Cosmonauts' who ate extra salt in simulation retained more water and did not feel as thirsty and needed more energy.

10 male volunteers were involved for the study and sealed into a mock spaceship for two simulated flights to Mars, by the researchers including those from the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) in Germany.

The first group was tested upon for 105 days, the second for over 205 days. Well almost same diets were given to the two groups, only difference in their diet being in that over periods lasting several weeks, they were given three different levels of salt in their food.

It was found that eating more salt led to higher content of salt in urine.

A salty diet made the participants to drink less. Salt made the kidneys to store water in them, told researchers.

The prevailing hypothesis had been that the charged sodium and chloride ions in salt grabbed onto water molecules and dragged them into the urine, researchers said.

While according ton the new results, salt stayed in urine and water moved back to kidney and body.

"What alternative driving force could make water move back?" said Jens Titze, professor at University of Erlangen in Germany.
Experiments in mice indicated that urea might be involved. The substance is formed in muscles and liver in order to shed nitrogen, told the researchers.