"Eat spicy salt" has a scientific basis.

Can eating spicy food reduce salt intake? The answer to this question is yes in front of Zhu Ming, director of the All-Army Hypertension Metabolism Center at the Army Medical University, who led a research team that has just explored the scientific mechanism of "eating spicy salt."
" According to our previous research, capsaicin, the main ingredient in chili peppers, has a protective cardiovascular metabolism such as mild blood pressure reduction, weight loss, and anti-atherosclerotic plaques, which provides a scientific basis for guiding people's healthy diets and the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular metabolic diseases." Zhu Told China Science Daily that China's epidemiological survey data also show that the prevalence of coronary heart disease and hypertension in the spicy southwest region is generally lower than in the north. On this basis, Zhu's research team began to explore whether spicy food can reduce salt intake.
Zhu's scientific research team boldly assumed: "Is it Chongqing and other southwest residents, because of frequent consumption of chili food, affecting people's perception of salty taste, resulting in differences in the amount of salt in the north and south residents?" To confirm the above hypothesis, the research team conducted a population survey on salt intake and salt taste in four cities in the north and south of the country (Shenyang, Jinan, Chengdu and Chongqing), confirming that people who like to eat spicy food have significantly increased their sensitivity to salt and significantly reduced their salt intake (up to 2.5 grams per day).
is the reason for the reduction of salt intake in the spicy population? Is it the spicy experience that affects the taste and makes people feel as if they are eating salty food?
to further clarify these issues, Zhu's team began with population studies and animal experiments to further study the mechanisms by which salt taste and spicy sensation interact in the brain's center. They found that when the subjects' tongues felt different concentrations of salt solution, PET/CT scans showed a significant correlation between the intensity of metabolic activity in the island leaf and the brain region of the niein and the forehead of their brains and the concentration of salt solution. By adding very low concentrations of capsaicin to low-concentration salt solutions , i.e. without a distinctly spicy feeling , the metabolic activity intensity of the above-mentioned brain regions is significantly enhanced , even stronger than that of high-concentration salt solutions . The results suggest that capsaicin has a significant effect on the salt taste center.
" at present, the implementation of global salt restriction measures compliance is not good, it is difficult to make the daily salt intake standards. Our research reveals that adding spicy products to cooking not only increases fresh aromas, but also enhances saltiness, thereby reducing the amount of salt used. Zhu Ming said. It was they who discovered the "unique" salt reduction measures from a new perspective, the study of which was published in the Journal of Hypertension, the core journal of the American Heart Association.
Wainford, a professor at Boston University in the U.S., commented that the study is the first to reveal a metabolic link between salt and salt preferences in the central, through central intervention to reduce salt and blood pressure, adding spicy flavor to food is a new, effective salt reduction measure, but also more easily spread in the population.
by Zhao Guangli.