Saliva plays a vital role in the human body. Especially it is very important for digestion. During my school days I remember doing Salivary amylase test during my biology lab sessions. That is when I understood the real importance of Saliva. There are few generic reasons given by people about the importance of Saliva. The first reason is that it helps a person keep their mouth lubricated. In other living beings saliva also plays a vital role while killing their prey but in the case of humans it is really very important during digestion process.
Digestion starts from mouth
As it is commonly said that digestion starts from mouth, the reason is because of the presence of saliva. Saliva helps in triggering the taste bugs in the mouth. Without the help of Saliva the taste buds in the mouth will not be able to feel the taste. Tasting a food is very important for the body to understand the quality of the food. Based the taste of the food, body decides the metabolism to break down the food.
When a person consumes a tasty food, the secretion of saliva in the mouth will be more. This will help in lubricating the food in the mouth and push it to the esophagus. Without lubrication it is difficult to swallow the food. But before even swallowing the food, we will need saliva in the food to chew the food and break down it into smaller pieces. If you observe the process keenly, you will be able to see that we can swallow the food only after mouth is convinced with chewing and the taste buds are satisfied. If our taste buds are not satisfied and if they don't recognize the taste, we will not be able to swallow the food easily.
Some people drink water to lubricate the solid food that they consume. It is good but naturally eating a tasty food will automatically secrete more saliva and saliva also helps a lot during digestion process. The digestion process starts in the mouth when food particles mix with saliva to break down to smaller carbohydrates and maltose. That is the reason why it is always advisable to consume juicy food items. Even if we consume liquid items, we should make it go through the taste buds and salivary amylase process before swallowing it. By doing this we will make sure our body understand the food item that is getting inside and will be prepared to release enzymes to break it down.
Fight bacteria and protection
When we talk to others and when we sometimes breathe through our mouth, there is a high possibility that some bacteria can go inside the mouth. The saliva present in the mouth has some antibacterial properties that help in preventing these bacteria from entering the body through our mouth. Apart from the help that it renders during the digestion process, antibacterial properties.
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