London: A new study has said that addiction to salt starts when babies as young as six months.
Infants who have been introduced to foods such as bread and breakfast cereals have a greater preference for salty tasting meals than those not yet eating them, it said.
Researchers found that babies who were used to salt in their food consumed 55 per cent more during a preference test than those who were not.
By the age of four, the same youngsters were more likely to eat plain salt, the study noted.
“More and more evidence is showing us that the first months of life constitute a sensitive period for shaping flavour preferences,” the Daily Mail quoted lead author Leslie Stein, a physiological psychologist at the Monell Centre in the United States, as saying.
In the study, the salt preference of 61 babies was tested at both two and six months of age. At each age, the infant was allowed to drink from three bottles for two minutes each.
Altogether 26 infants already eating starchy foods preferred both salt solutions to water, while 35 babies who had not yet been introduced to these foods remained indifferent to or continued to reject the salt solutions.
“Our findings suggest that early dietary experience influences the preference for salty taste,” said Dr Stein.
The same children were checked at pre-school age when mothers completed questionnaires about the children’s dietary behaviour.
These showed that 12 children who were introduced to starchy table foods before six months of age were more likely to lick salt from foods and also were likely to eat plain salt.
The study appeared in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
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