An in-depth investigation of salt taste sensitivity has found that people who can easily taste salt have differing amounts of certain proteins in their saliva than those who are less sensitive. The findings could potentially lead to the development of more flavorful and tastier low-sodium foods.
It is believed that the consumption of low-sodium foods could help reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke. But in order to create more palatable low-sodium products, researchers need a better understanding of how the body processes and perceives saltiness. Although saliva is thought to play a role, it's unclear exactly what components of the liquid could explain the differences in salt perception among people. In a small study, Thomas Hofmann and colleagues at the Technical University of Munich sought to find out.
The team classified volunteers into sensitive and non-sensitive groups according to how salty the participants thought various sodium chloride solutions were. Using liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry, the team identified several salivary proteins that differed between those who could readily detect salt and those who couldn't.
Surprisingly, they found the largest differences in the resting saliva of the subjects compared to saliva produced after swishing around a salty solution. In their resting saliva, sensitive subjects had higher amounts of endopeptidases, enzymes that cut up proteins, than non-sensitive subjects. The researchers suggest that the enzymes could be modifying sodium channels, which would increase the amount of sodium that gets into cells. Alternatively, the enzymes could be cutting proteins in the saliva to produce salt-enhancing peptides in people who are sensitive.
Results of the study were published last month in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
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