Mere days after Campbell's announced they plan to once again reduce the sodium in foods marketed towards children, a British study published in the American Heart Association Journal says salt intake from meals and snacks may cause kids to down soft drinks to quench the resulting thirst.

Graham MacGregor, who co-authored the study at St. George's University of London, calls salt "a hidden factor in the obesity epidemic," and another researcher warned parents they may be blaming high levels of salt on the wrong source.

"Most people think that sodium comes from the salt shaker. The salt shaker contributes less than 10 to 15 percent," said Dr. Myron Weinberger, a professor of medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine. "Fast foods, for example, are just loaded with sodium. Processed foods are all very high in sodium," said Weinberger, who wrote an editorial related to the study published in the online journal Hypertension.

This ugly chain makes sense: salt makes you thirsty. Kids turn to sugary drinks to get rid of said thirst. Sugary drinks have been linked to childhood obesity. The study claims that reducing a child's salt intake by half could result children cutting their consumption of sugary soda by an average 18 ounces each week.

Of course I once again question why researchers have to spend so much time and money on producing scientific evidence of facts that should be sheer logic. Though I suppose if we could rely on logic alone, parents would enforce healthy diets and kids would be far less fat and far more active. But apparently we really aren't that smart.

» MSNBC Health