The increased risk of developing diabetes due to overeating salt was proven thanks to a large-scale study that was recently completed at Tulane University. The experiment began 12 years ago, when scientists decided to study data from more than 400 thousand people registered in the British Biobank.
Volunteers were asked to take a survey, and they spoke in detail about how much salt they consume. Moreover, at that time they did not have diabetes, chronic kidney disease, cancer or cardiovascular disease.
Participants were followed up by doctors throughout the study, and approximately 13,000 of them later developed type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). When studying the subjects in more detail, scientists found:
🧂 those who indicated in the questionnaire that they consume salt “regularly” or “always” had a 20% and 39% higher risk of developing diabetes, respectively, than those who do not eat it;
🧂 those who ate salt “sometimes” had a 13% higher risk;
🧂 Frequency of salt consumption has been associated with obesity.