What’s the property of toothpaste that makes some foods (orange juice is the classic example, I guess) taste SO bad if you eat right after brushing?
In: 60
My understanding is that toothpaste dulls your receptors that taste sweetness. So when you drink orange juice, you’re tasting all the sour without the sweetness to balance it out and it tastes terrible.
I can’t explain the science behind it, but if you use a toothpaste without sodium laureth sulfate (sp?) Is much less of a problem.
In essence, toothpaste is kinda like soap, but with artifical sweetener to counteract the bitterness of ~soap.
When tasting the toothpaste, these flavours kinda cancle out, and you don’t really notice it.
But I believe that the huge amount of artifical sweetness makes your tongue lose sensitivity to lower levels to sweetness, and so foods that utilise sweetness taste as if they had almost no sugar.
–
Compare it to how if you eat ice-cream, you get used to the cold somewhat, and then if you drink cool water, it feels warm.
[deleted]
Regardless of the numbing agent (sodium laureate) the sweet flavour of toothpaste is strong and basically overwhelms your taste receptors for sweetness. The receptors go shut down for a while, so you won’t be able to register anything sweet until they recover, but you will still taste all the other aspects of whatever you eat/drink, and whatever it is will be way out of balance without the sweetness.
This effect can be super beneficial when pairing wine with food though!
There are two reasons – mint dulls your sense of sweetness (that’s why you can eat mints that are basically made of a sugar cube and mint oil) and also the chemicals used to make the toothpaste frothy heighten your bitterness sense, just as a side effect.
If you take all the sweetness put and double the bitterness, orange juice, or pretty much anything will taste odd and often unpleasant! Orange juice is especially bad as it often contains a lot of the pith and skin from the orange which has a bitter taste, normally masked by the sweetness of the juice.
Rinse your mouth with warm water after brushing. You can drink oj straight away. No bitterness
Want to really screw up your world view? Drink some orange juice a few minutes before you brush your teeth… and see how terrible the toothpaste tastes.
Because you haven’t brushed for long enough. You should be brushing for at least 2 minutes or until the taste of the toothpaste changes in your mouth.
When the taste changes, you can stop brushing and food will taste more normal.
Also, additional side note… If you experience excessive skin tissue after brushing, where you can collect a slight ‘film’ of skin after brushing… You may be allergic to your toothpaste. If you roll your tongue around your mouth and find an excess of skin after brushing, you’re probably allergic to something in your toothpaste. Took my way too many years to figure this out.
Latest Answers