Washington : The ability of salt to change the taste of food is a marvel, but too much of it puts us at an increased health risk.
It’s well known that too much can lead to high blood pressure, a potentially dangerous condition if left untreated. Now, a team of scientists reports a new animal study that found a high-salt diet might also contribute to liver damage in adults and developing embryos.
Xuesong Yang and colleagues gave adult mice a high-salt diet and exposed chick embryos to a briny environment.
Excessive sodium was associated with a number of changes in the animals’ livers, including oddly shaped cells, an increase in cell death and a decrease in cell proliferation, which can contribute to the development of fibrosis.
On a positive note, the researchers did find that treating damaged cells with vitamin C appeared to partially counter the ill effects of excess salt.
The study appears in ACS’ Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. (ANI)