It’s always something I have thought about. Is it lubricating our mouth?
In: Biology
There are neural circuits that involve your perception of food and your body preparing itself for the likely entry of that food into your mouth. At the end of the neural circuit are your salivary glands which produce saliva. Saliva lubricates swallowing and provides digestive enzymes like amylase that helps break down starches in your food.
Yes it is.
When you’re eating, your mouth needs to make each bite soggy and slippery enough to easily swallow. To do this, it makes saliva fast.
It would be a waste to always be making saliva this fast. And you couldn’t sleep without it running all over. So instead there’s a “speed control” and your saliva production is only set to “high” when necessary – right before and during actually eating.
It’s a part of the digestion process. The saliva helps break down food. It’s your brain telling your body “it’s time to prep for food time” In biology we had to write a paper on what happens when you eat a cheese burger through every step of the digestion process. Every paper had to start with “the process of digestion starts before food even enters your mouth”
Latest Answers