Can you stop your hunger with salt?

Are you constantly hungry, unsuccessfully looking to fast, or just dieting? Well, as it turns out, a household additive that makes your meals even tastier might be the root of your problem.

The way I write these stories is simple: I hear fun facts from some of my more educated friends, quietly write down the topic in my notes app, research it, fact-check it, and then write the article.

But this time, something different happened. When I started writing this story I had heard that salt can actually be used to stop your hunger, but my research pointed out that it’s linked to an increase in appetite. So, which one is it?

Using salt to stop hunger.

So, this is where the story starts. Put yourself in my shoes…

My friends and I spend a lot of time online, especially on forums related to fitness as a few of my friends are bodybuilders. In a desperate attempt to tame their insatiable hunger to diet, or as they call it “cut”, they scour the internet trying to find a solution.

The solution most of them found is to take a teaspoon of pink salt. In a waterbottle or even straight.

Simple, I know. But all of them have recommended this as the best way to cut hunger down. I looked into it, as I always do, and lots of people (especially on Reddit) share this same experience; they take pink salt and their hunger goes away.

They claim the salt stimulates your brain, giving it a small “reward” feeling to suppress appetite.

First problem: why pink salt? I mean, the only difference to normal salt is that pink salt has more minerals like potassium, magnesium, and calcium. Are they making a difference?

Well, as it turns out, both magnesium and calcium can both reduce hunger. Although, I still find it strange that such trace amounts of these minerals could have an effect.

Salt appetite, salt hunger and salt depletion

Ah, the second problem. This is where it gets weird so bear with me.

When doing my research I found a bunch of studies that linked the consumption of salt to an increase in appetite¹.

As I keep digging I find more articles that claim salt-heavy foods can promote ghrelin, the hormone responsible for making you feel hungry. However, with no studies linked to these articles, it’s hard to come to a conclusive answer.

The second problem is the following: it’s proven that a salt deficiency can increase appetite¹. But this is definitely not what my friends or the Redditors were solving with their mere teaspoon of unpure salt.

Conclusion

Which one is it?

Does salt increase hunger or decrease it?

The best conclusion I could come up with is that while pink salt does contain some minerals that can reduce appetite, the amount that they are using is just not enough to have any real effect on your appetite. Instead, in the case of my friends and the many Redditors who share this experience, it’s more likely that this is just a placebo effect.

As for the claims that salt increases hunger, it turns out this only happens if you have a salt deficiency, and the hunger is specifically based on foods that have high sodium content.

Salt on its own won’t be your miracle solution, but there are a lot of more efficient solutions that I’ll share over the coming weeks.