Why is dessert sweeter with salt?

why is salted caramel candy so sweet? Photo Credit: PIXEL-SHOT/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
The experience in life is that sprinkling a little salt on a sweet food can increase sweetness. Salted caramel, for example, is sprinkled with sea salt on the caramel, which has a salty feel at the entrance but is quickly replaced by the sweetness of caramel. A recent study published in the Journal of Physiology provides a scientific basis for salt to increase sweetness.
people's ability to taste food comes from the sensor cells of the tongue taste buds. The sweetness is detected by the T1R receptor family, which can feel both natural sugars and artificial sweeteners. Scientists initially thought that knocking out the T1R family would block any response to sweetening. But in 2003, researchers found that mice with the T1R gene still liked to eat glucose-containing foods. The findings suggest that mice or humans have another way of perceiving sweetness.
to find out, Yasumatsu Keiko, a physiologist at Tokyo Dental Junior College, studied a protein that works with glucose: sodium-glucose co-transport protein 1 (SGLT1). In the kidneys and intestines, SGLT1 uses sodium to carry glucose into cells and provide energy to them. Curiously, the protein is also found in sweet-sensitive taste cells.
researchers wiped the tongues of T1R-mutant comatose mice with a glucose-salt solution that contained sodium needed for SGLT1 and recorded neural reactions linked to taste cells. They found that salt seemed to play a big role: it caused the mice to react more quickly than mutant mice that gave only glucose, and conscious mice seemed to prefer a sugar-salt solution. However, this reaction is only applicable to sweeteners such as glucose and saccharin.
addition, known compounds that inhibit SGLT1 also blocked mice's response to glucose, suggesting that SGLT1 may be a hidden route of glucose receptors. Although this pathway helps genes knock out glucose in mice, in normal mice it may enhance the sweetness captured by the T1R subject. Yasumatu believes the findings may even apply to humans and may explain the popularity of foods such as salted caramel.
researchers also concluded three taste cells that are sensitive to sweetness. The first two use the T1R and SGLT1 pathways separately to help the body distinguish between natural sugars and artificial sweeteners. The third is the T1R and SGLT1 mixing pathways, which respond to fatty acids and flavors. The researchers believe this provides a way to detect high-calorie foods.
"This is an interesting study that shows that perceived sweetness is much more complex than we previously realized." Kathryn Medler, an expert on taste signals at the University of Buffalo who was not involved in the study, said.
, Emily Liman, a neurobiologist at the University of Southern California, agrees, arguing that the evidence that SGTL helps taste systems detect sweeteners is irrefutable. (Source: Xin Yu, China Science Daily)
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