Just the Correctly Sized Pinch of Salt
A recent study conducted by researchers from the University of Heidelberg, Germany, found that too little or too much salt intake during pregnancy can affect kidney development.
The study, which was published in the online version of the American Journal of Physiology – Renal Physiology, tested rat subjects and monitored the sodium intake during pregnancy and their newborn baby’s sodium intake. The researchers gave low sodium diets to some women and high to others during pregnancy and after for a couple weeks as well.
They discovered that if the sodium intake was moderate to high during pregnancy, it altered the development of glomeruli, which is the main structural unit in a kidney. This was also the same for the rat subjects that received low sodium, which concluded that either extreme left the unborn baby at a disadvantage.