Samiul Bashar Samin
Have you ever wondered why you felt your mouth water every time the waiter passed you by with that deliciously fragrant spaghetti in his hand while you were at your table starving and ready to kill for food? Hadi Fares the winner of the ACS Chemistry contest explains the science behind your inhibitions.
He released a video explaining that saliva helps to lubricate the food we eat in order to make chewing and swallowing easier for us. In addition to that, saliva also helps to break down the food and digest it after it we swallowed it.
Saliva can be classified into two types: mucous and serous. Our sense of sight, smell or thought of food is directly connected to serous saliva. Our reflex system is responsible for controlling the saliva production and they can work even without us being consciously in charge of them. The nerves that are responsible for these senses can convey information directly to our reflex system. The reflex system is activated by our sense of smell or taste, or even the smallest movements of our jaw muscles.