People who sprinkle salt on everything and gravitate toward unhealthy high-sodium foods may be expressing a taste preference formed during early infancy, a small new study suggests.
Researchers found that six-month-old babies are more likely to enjoy the taste of salt if they have already been given starchy table foods such as cereal and crackers, the most common source of sodium for babies.
And this affinity for salt appears to be lasting. Once they’d reached preschool age, the kids in the study who were exposed to sodium as infants were apt to prefer salty foods such as potato chips, hot dogs, and french fries — and some showed signs of being salt fanatics, going so far as to lick salt crystals off pretzels or eat salt plain.