A new study revealed that eating salty foods speeds up cellular aging in teenagers who are overweight and obese.

Researchers led by Haidon Zhu, M.D., an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Medical College of Georgia, concluded that overweight and obese teenagers, who consume salt way more than the recommended amount, age up earlier than normal. According to the American Heart Association,the recommended amount of salt intake is two-thirds of a teaspoon or 1,500 mg daily.

In the study, they recruited about 800 teenagers between the ages 14 and 18 and grouped them into two based on their salt intake. Both groups consumed more than the recommended amount. The participants in the high-intake group consumed more than 4,100 mg of salt a day, while the low-intake group consumed less than 2,400 mg a day.

They then examined the effects of salt intake on "telomeres." Telomeres are the protective ends on chromosomes that shorten as one grows older. It can also be shortened due to smoking, presence of high levels of fat in the body, and physical inactivity.

After examining the telomeres in each participant, they found that overweight and obese teenagers in the high-intake salt group have shorter telomeres, but not with normal-weight teenagers in the same group.

"Even in these relatively healthy young people, we can already see the effect of high [salt] intake, suggesting that high [salt] intake and obesity may act synergistically to accelerate cellular aging," said Zhu to Healthday.

"Lowering [salt] intake, especially if you are overweight or obese, may slow down the cellular aging process that plays an important role in the development of heart disease," Zhu added.

This study was presented in an American Heart Association conference held in San Francisco. The results are still considered unofficial as it has not been published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.