Richard L. Hanneman
Salt Institute
Salt and Health newsletter
Winter 2007
Obesity is a major public health concern and some anti-obesity dietary recommendations suggest salt reduction among the interventions to control weight. There is no evidence that non-caloric salt contributes to weight gain except for entirely transitory "water weight." Two large, federally-funded clinical trials, TOHP II and DASH, have documented that reducing salt intake does not improve weight loss or blood pressure control where a high quality diet known to lower blood pressure is utilized. The evidence exonerates salt as a cause of obesityand even assigns it a positive role in encouraging an increase in healthy pursuit of physical fitness. In the vast majority of cases, overweight and obesity result from energy input exceeding energy output. Salt Institute. Salt and Health newsletter, Winter 2007.