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Asked by eviej26 to Amy, Drew, Julia, Kimberley, Sara on 22 Jun 2011.
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Kimberley Bryon answered on 20 Jun 2011:
Saliva contains lots of different enzymes, some of these are important for digestion e.g. salivary amylase as it helps turn starch in to sugars. If we didn’t have saliva we would also find it difficult to swallow food.
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Julia Griffen answered on 20 Jun 2011:
To keep our mouth wet and to start to digest our food when we start chewing.. Our saliva conatins amylase which causes the break down of starch into sugar. so we can then digest and absorb these sugars into our body.
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Amy MacQueen answered on 21 Jun 2011:
Hey!!
You have three pairs of major salivary glands, and hundreds of minor salivary glands in your mouth and they produce…yes you guessed it saliva!! Human saliva is 98% water, while the other 2% consists of other chemicals such as electrolytes, mucus, antibacterial compounds, and various enzymes (amylase is my favourite because it sounds like “amy” and it breaks down starch – pretty handy thing to have!!).
As part of the initial process of food digestion, the enzymes in the saliva break down some of the starch and fat in the food at the molecular level. Saliva also breaks down food caught in the teeth, protecting them from bacteria that cause decay. Saliva lubricates our mouths to protect the teeth, the tongue, and the tender tissues inside the mouth.
Apparently it also plays an important role in tasting food, by trapping chemicals called thiols!
Some animals use their saliva for other cool stuff as well – swifts use their gummy saliva to build nests and cobras hunt with venomous saliva injected by fangs. Some spiders create thread from salivary glands!! amazing!!
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Sara Imari Walker answered on 22 Jun 2011:
Wow! These ladies have it covered! The two primary reasons are (a) to help digest food with enzymes in saliva before the food reaches our stomach and (b) to act as a lubricant.
Not too gross, I’ve seen certainly see worse! 😉
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