While most of us tend to trim fat and carbs from our diets when trying to lose weight (or just eat healthier overall), apparently we should be pushing away the salt shaker instead. A new study published in the Journal of Nutrition reveals that salt is the culprit for eating more.

According to researchers at Deakin University in Australia, salt increases how pleasant people perceive food to be and even makes them crave more. The results show that participants wanted to eat more of the high-salt meals than their low-salt counterparts while the same did not hold true for high-fat food over low-fat foods, TIME reports. 

Salt alone accounted for people eating 11 percent more food and calories. "Over the course of a day, that's really a significant amount," principal investigator and Deakin University professor Russell Keast told TIME.

What's more, people who were particularly sensitive to fatty foods were conscientious about how much they were consuming when the meal was low in salt. When it was high in salt, however, much of their restraint was thrown out the window. "When we add salt to that food, all of a sudden those controls are gone," Keast says. 

This could prove dangerous for those who tend to wield the salt shaker at lunch and dinner hours. So, in addition to drinking more water, you could cut out extra calories by pinching back on the seasoning.

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