The following essay is republished with permission ConversationAn online publication covering the latest research.
Hopefully this is a mistake you’ll only make once. In a hurry to get ready in the morning, you brush your teeth and drink a large glass of orange juice before heading to the kitchen. Yes!
Why does OJ taste so gross when your clean, minty mouthfeel meets it?
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The short answer is that toothpaste contains a detergent that dissolves fat. And because your taste buds are partly made up of fat, they get obstructed every time you brush your teeth.
Before you decide that you have to stop brushing your teeth to save your taste buds, know that this interruption is temporary, only lasting a few minutes. yet to brush with toothpaste important for your health.
But how does this change in taste occur? And how are the taste receptors on the surface of your tongue supposed to work?
I am a psychologist and have spent over 40 years researching this science How people experience taste and flavor.
Let’s take a look at the science behind this phenomenon:
a bittersweet symphony
Thanks for the development, your brain is wired To let you love sweet sugar Your body and brain need it Hate to fuel and bitter poison that can kill you. So your receptors for these two particular tastes are vital to your survival.
All cells held together in your body by an outer layer, known as membranewhich is made up of fat called lipid. And sweet or bitter taste receptors in cells also contain a special molecule in the cell membrane called a G protein-coupled receptoror GPCR.
Some GPCRs are designed to detect sweet taste. They eliminate all compounds that are not sweet and react only to sugars that your body can use. Others trace the bitter taste to the large number of toxic compounds in nature. They act as a built-in alarm system.
Salty Chips and Sour Candies
You have a slightly different perception of salty and sour. These flavors are detected when positively charged ions called cations Pass through tiny pores in the cell membrane of your salty and sour receptors.
in the matter of saltinessThe cation is sodium chloride – the positively charged sodium found in common table salt.
Acidic, or sour to taste, the cation is a positively charged hydrogen ion. While different types of acids may have different chemical compounds, they all contain a hydrogen cation.
When you eat potato chips, positively charged sodium cations from the salt pass through special pores in the membrane of the receptor, causing the salty taste. Similarly, the hydrogen cations in your favorite sour candy slip through other special pores in the membrane of your sour receptor and send a “sour” signal to your brain.
Toothpaste and OJ
Orange juice, which many people like to drink with breakfast, is naturally high in sugar. But it also contains citric acid along with hydrogen cations. As a result, it is a delicious combination of both sweet and slightly sour.
But if you brush your teeth before breakfast, your OJ tastes bad. What has changed?
It is not that the taste of mint clashes with sweets. toothpaste contains detergent sodium lauryl sulphatewhich helps in removing dental plaque From your teeth. Plaque is a sticky film of germs that can cause cavities and make your breath smell bad.
If you’ve ever cleaned dishes, you’ve probably noticed what happens when you add detergent to a sink full of greasy water: The detergent breaks up the greasy fat, making it easier to wipe off the dishes and leave them clean.
But there’s another type of fat in your mouth that the detergent in toothpaste disrupts – lipids in the cell membranes of your taste receptors. Brushing your teeth breaks down the lipid layer, temporarily changing the way you perceive taste.
testing it
In 1980, I conducted a study with some of my colleagues who were studying chemistry. We wanted to know how the tongue reacted to sweet, bitter, salty and sour after coming in contact with sodium lauryl sulphate, a detergent present in toothpaste.
We did an experiment With seven student volunteers at Yale. They tasted very high concentrations of sweet sucrose, sour citric acid, salt, and bitter quinine before and after holding a solution of sodium lauryl sulphate (0.05%) in their mouth for one minute.
You can do your own version of this experiment with sugar, a little table salt, orange juice, and something sweet like tonic water. Taste them before and after brushing your teeth, and see what happens!
We found that the intensity of the flavors of sucrose, salt and quinine were reduced by small amounts, but the most significant change was that a bitter taste was added to the sour taste of citric acid.
This is why, instead of tasting sweet with a little nice tartness after brushing your teeth, your OJ tastes bitter.
This article was originally published on Conversation. read the original article.
