ABC | Volume 113, Nº3, September 2019

Original Article Villela et al. Salt preference and hypertension Arq Bras Cardiol. 2019; 113(3):392-399 100 80 60 40 20 0 0 1 2 3 Volunteers, % Hypertensive older subjects Hypertensive young subjects Figure 1 – Distribution of the preference for bread samples among hypertensive volunteers in the first experiment, without the addition of oregano. 0: did not perceive a difference; 1: preferred the sample with 1.5% salt; 2: preferred the sample with 2.0% salt; 3: preferred the sample with 2.7% salt. Oregano seems to contribute to the failure to differentiate flavors, with the total number of volunteers who did not notice a difference between samples increasing from 3 (3.13%) to 18 (15.25%), with p < 0.001. Discussion We found a clear predominance of salt preference in hypertensive participants compared to the non-hypertensive groups. In this study, we used a sensory analysis to investigate salt preference using a method similar to that employed by Shepherd et al., 23 who compared the preference of hypertensive individuals for soup samples with three different salt concentrations. In the cited study, there was a greater preference for the sample with lower salt concentration, in contrast to what was observed in the present study. However, all of the participants in the Shepherd study were hypertensive, with no comparison with normotensive subjects. The preference for high salt intake can be caused by physiological, genetic and psychological factors and by changes occurring during human development. 24 Evidence indicates that the taste of salt is inherently attractive to humans by making the flavor of the foods more palatable compared to the same foods without salt. 24,25 100 80 60 40 20 0 Volunteers, % Normotensive older subjects Normotensive young subjects 0 1 2 3 Figure 2 – Distribution of the preference for bread samples among normotensive volunteers in the first experiment, without the addition of oregano. 0: did not perceive a difference; 1: preferred the sample with 1.5% salt; 2: preferred the sample with 2.0% salt; 3: preferred the sample with 2.7% salt. 395