Eating a lot of salt is linked to changes in your stomach lining that might lead to health issues, and many big studies show this connection is real even though the exact strength varies a bit.

Eating salt doesn't seem to affect stomach changes differently in various parts of the world or in different types of studies—it's pretty much the same everywhere.

Eating more salt is linked to a higher chance of having a stomach condition called gastric intestinal metaplasia, which means your stomach lining changes in a way that might not be healthy.

Eating salty foods seems to be more strongly linked to early stomach changes that can lead to cancer than to actual cancer itself, meaning salt might affect cancer risk earlier in the process.

When researchers combined many small studies about salt and stomach changes, they found signs that the smaller studies might have problems or were more likely to be published if they showed certain results. This could make the overall results less reliable.

Eating a lot of salt might raise the chance of stomach cancer more for Japanese people than for others, according to big studies that looked at many groups over time.