Kind of a duh moment but people need to heed the warning, extra salt in your food leads to poorer health outcomes.

Published in European Heart Journal, a study lead by researchers at Tulane University found that people who always added salt to their food increased their risk of dying prematurely by 28%, with premature death defined as dying before turning 75 years old.

The researchers analyzed data from 501,379 people from the UK Biobank Study where participants were asked whether or not they added extra salt to their food, wth answer choices of: never/rarely, somtimes, usually, always, and prefer not to answer. Those who preferred not to answer were excluded from the study.

At the age of 50 years, always adding salt to their food decreased life expectancy from 1.5 to 2.3 years compared to those who never added salt to their food. In addition, risk of dying from all-cause mortality also increased in those who always added salt to their diet.

Though not statistically significant, the risks were slightly attenuated in those who ate the highest amount of fruits and vegetables.

Strongly recommend you get off the white stuff.

H Ma et al. Adding salt to foods and hazard of premature mortality. European Heart Journal. DOI: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehac208