“Overall, we found that people who don’t shake on a little additional salt to their foods very often had a much lower risk of heart disease events, regardless of lifestyle factors and pre-existing disease,” senior author Lu Qi, MD, PhD, a professor at the school of public health and tropical medicine at Tulane University in New Orleans, said in a prepared statement. “We also found that when patients combine a DASH diet with a low frequency of adding salt, they had the lowest heart disease risk. This is meaningful as reducing additional salt to food, not removing salt entirely, is an incredibly modifiable risk factor that we can hopefully encourage our patients to make without much sacrifice.”

Adding salt to foods less often was more likely when the person was a woman, white or had a lower body mass index. They were also more likely to already have high blood pressure or present with chronic kidney disease. In addition, they were more likely to adhere to a DASH-style diet and eat a higher amount of fruits, vegetables, legumes and whole grains, but less likely to drink sugar-sweetened drinks or eat red/processed meats.