How Does Saliva Work?

Saliva is something you probably (hopefully?) don't think about too much, but it helps you speak, eat, taste, and even digest. Learn about the wonders of spit in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://health.howstuffworks.com/human-body/systems/digestive/saliva-change-food.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey, rain stuff,
Laura wollabo'm here. Saliva It's not the kind of thing
that comes to mind often. Sure, you might notice it
when you smell the smoke coming off of barbecue, or
the lack of it when you're about to give a presentation,

(00:24):
but a seemingly inconsequential thing like spit actually plays an
important role in our health and in the way that
our food tastes. Saliva is ninety nine percent water. The
remaining one percent is made up of well lots of stuff,
including digestive enzymes, uric acid, electrolytes, mucous forming proteins, and cholesterol.

(00:47):
It's also home to more than seven hundred types of microbes,
including bacteria and fungi. The actual makeup of our spit
varies from person to person, and each person's saliva fluctuates
due to factors like age, hormonal influences, and various stimuli.
As is the case with mucus, our bodies are constantly

(01:08):
producing saliva. Throughout the course of a day, your body
churns out about two to four pints of it. That's
one to two liters. Most of that sliva production occurs
in the afternoon and tapers off at night when we
tuck into bed. We don't completely stop salivating when we sleep,
which explains why some side or belly sleepers wake to
discover that they've drooled on their pillow. Saliva is produced

(01:32):
in these salivary glands, which are found in the tissues
of our mouth. These glands are made up of clusters
of cells that secrete saliva through a series of collecting
ducks out into the mouth. There are three major pairs
of salivary glands. The parotid glands are the largest. They're
located on both sides of your face in front of
your ears. Each one produces about ten percent of your

(01:54):
mouth saliva. The submandipular glands are the second largest. They're
located under the jawbone, and the smallest are the sublingual glands.
These almond shaped glands lie on the floor of the mouth,
underneath the tongue. There are also smaller clusters of salivary
glands in your upper digestive tract and esophagus. These secrete

(02:16):
sliva with special enzymes that aid in digestion before the article.
This episode is based on How Stuff Works. Spoke via
email with Guy Carpenter, a professor of oral biology and
an oral physiologist at King's College in London. He said,
saliva's rolls cover all the functions of the mouth you
can think of, including taste, chew, swallows, smell, but aerosol generation,

(02:40):
a maintenance of mucosal tissue, lubrication of fats, a maintenance
of oral microbiome, speech, et cetera. That's a mouthful, so
let's break it down and discuss some of the important
functions that saliva carries out in our bodies. First off, yes,
saliva helps you taste food. Your taste buds get all

(03:03):
the credit, but they'd be practically worthless if not for saliva.
It's difficult for our taste buds, which lie in deep
channels across our tongues, to assess dry lumpy aroma compounds
without saliva. If you're skeptical, you can try this. Dab
your tongue dry, then place one lump each of rock
salt and rock sugar on your tongue. It'll be next

(03:26):
to impossible to differentiate between the two lumps without allowing
a wave of saliva to wash over them. A paper
published in the journal Annual Review of Food Science and
Technology in March of twenty twenty two, coined the term
food oral processing to describe this phenomenon. Basically, we only
perceive the flavor of foods if they can reach the

(03:48):
taste buds. To get there, food molecules must pass through
and be coated with a thin layer of saliva. We
aren't actually tasting the food itself, but the mixture the
food and the saliva. But the composition and the rate
of flow of saliva is different for every person, so
scientists don't know the exact science of how it affects food. Interestingly,

(04:13):
researchers have found that people with different salivary flow rates
or different levels of mucus in their saliva may have
different flavor experiences of the same foods. For example, in
a study published in the journal Food Research International in
December of twenty nineteen, scientists measured sliva levels and participants
who agreed to evaluate the taste of wine to which

(04:35):
fruity flavored compounds had been added. Those who produced more
saliva tended to score the flavors as more intense. The
researchers surmised that these participants swallowed more often, which forced
more aromas into their nasal passages, resulting in a more
intense tasting experience, which brings us to saliva and the nose.

(04:59):
The saliva can also affect the aroma of the food
you eat, which is responsible for the vast majority of
your perception of flavor as you chew. As some flavor
molecules dissolve in the saliva, those that don't can waft
into the nasal cavity and be sensed by the perceptors there.
Saliva also helps prevent you from choking on your food

(05:21):
as we choose. Sliva joins in and turns dry, crumbly
food bits into soft, cohesive lumps that are better able
to slide down our esophagus and continue their way through
our digestive tract. It also helps protect our esophagus from
getting damaged by any rough edged food particles, and saliva
helps you digest your food too. Remember that smaller cluster

(05:45):
of salivary glands in the upper digestive tract and esophagus.
They produce a type of saliva containing digestive enzymes. One
breaks down starch into sugars so your body can absorb
it more easily. Another helps break down fats These enzymes
prepare the food you've swallowed for the stomach. Your saliva

(06:07):
is also saturated with calcium and phosphate ions that help
protect the enamel surface of your teeth. Without this concentration
in your saliva, the enamel on your teeth would start
to erode. This helps explain nursing bottle syndrome, a condition
in young children who suck on filled bottles or sippy
cups for prolonged periods of time. The milk or juice

(06:29):
can sit on the teeth and especially the top teeth,
which are less protected by saliva, long enough for bacteria
to start causing cavities. Saliva also protects from tooth decay
by helping dilute dietary carbohydrates and neutralizing the acids from plaque. Finally,
remember how we said your saliva changes due to different influences.

(06:52):
Your spit is affected by the body's fight or flight response.
When you experience high stress or anxiety, your body he
seeks to conserve energy so that you can fight or flee.
One of the ways the body does this is by
shutting down your digestive system. That's why when you're feeling stressed, scared,
or anxious like when you're about to speak publicly. You

(07:14):
may notice your mouth feels especially parched, and that's why
speakers often keep water nearby During speeches, presentations, and other performances.
It's difficult to speak with a dry mouth. Water can help,
but having an adequate amount of saliva in the mouth
lubricates the oral tissues, making it easier to talk smoothly.

(07:39):
Today's episode is based on the article what is the
liva and how does it change the Taste of food?
On how stuffworks dot com written by Jennifer Walker. Journey
brain Stuff is production of iHeartRadio in partnership with how
Stuffworks dot Com, and it is produced by Tyler Lang.
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