According to the 2013 book "[Salt, Sugar, Fat][1]" by Michael Moss, while humans are born with tastes for fat and salt (they provoke pleasurable responses in newborns), the taste for salt is acquired (newborns do not enjoy it, but virtually all other humans in the First World do). If a person abstains from consuming salt for a time, they will regain their original sensitivity to it.

As a [2004 University of Washington Study][2] shows, the relationship between humans and salt is much less similar to that with sugar, and much more like the relationship with adictive substances.


  [1]: http://michaelmossbooks.com/books/salt-sugar-fat/
  [2]: http://depts.washington.edu/pemplab/pdfs/jjc2006-01.pdf