Cutting down on salt may help your bones. That’s the word from Australian researchers who found that middle-aged women following a low-salt diet to control high blood pressure excreted less calcium than women on a high carbohydrate, low-fat diet. The investigators suggested that the change in urinary excretion of calcium could benefit bones in the long term.
For the study, 92 women aged between 45 and 75 with signs of hypertension were randomly assigned to a low-sodium diet or a high-carb, low-fat diet. Both programs provided the women with 800 mg of dietary calcium daily. After 14 weeks, the researchers found that women on the low sodium diet were excreting 26 percent less sodium than they had at the outset and that levels of excreted calcium also dropped.
More study will be needed to determine if a low-sodium diet actually slows bone loss. But cutting excess sodium from your diet is a good idea for over-all health.
