Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff Laurina vogel Bomb Here. Think about salted caramel ice cream with chunks of pretzels in it, kettle corn melon wrapped with perscuto, or dates stuffed with cheese, or pineapple fried rice, or the classic combo French fries dipped in a milkshake. If you're like me, this is making you
very hungry. The marriage of salty and sweet is one that feels like it shouldn't work, and for some people it doesn't, but for others, it magically and deliciously does. We can't get enough of it. Too much sugar is overly intense, and too much salt is rinse your mouth out puckering. But when you mix the two, the combination is heavenly. So what's the science behind this phenomenon? First, let's talk about how our sense of taste works. We have five primary types of taste receptors in our mouth
and nose, sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and savory or umami. Umami, by the way, comes into our lexicon from Japanese. It was coined by the chemist who first isolated MSG or monosodium glutamate in nineteen oh eight. He wanted to sell MSG as a food supplement that could make bland but nutritious food more appealing, so he derived the word umami
from a colloquial word for tasty. So yes, umami is a Japanese marketing term from the nineteen ox Anyway, a contrary to what you probably learned in elementary school, each taste bud on your tongue can sense all of these flavors, and other nerve endings around your mouth and nose can as well. Our bodies evolved with taste receptors for good reasons. We detect sweetness in order to help fuel our bodies
with carbohydrates. We taste bitter to hypothetically protect our bodies from something potentially damaging, though lots of us decided that we dig the mild danger there, and we take salt to provide our bodies with a necessary nutrient. Now you've probably heard that you're supposed to watch your salt intakee and if you eat a lot of processed or pre made foods, you probably should. But the sodium in salt
is necessary for a few of our bodily functions. It helps your cells and organs maintain their proper fluid balance. It's used in the contraction and relaxation of your muscles fibers, including you know your heart, and it transmits nerve impulses. You need some sodium in your diet, and since sodium molecules are fickle, the best way for us to get it is via salt. And salt isn't just a nutrient either,
it's a flavor enhancer. So it stands to reason that if you mix sugar and salt, the salt will enhance the sugar flavor. A chef's and flavor scientists call this flavor layering, and the right mix, not too sweet not too salty, gives your brain a positive biological response. Part of this positive response can be chalked up to a
set of experiences called sensory specific desire and sensory specific satiety. Okay, because humans are omnivores, and because there are a number of nutrients that our bodies need that we cannot make ourselves and thus need to consume through food, we are wired to desire a variety of foods and tastes. A meaning will eventually tire of the same taste over and over again. So if you gorge yourself with sweets, and only sweets, you'll stop wanting more after a while, and
the same goes for salty, you'll satiate yourself on that flavor. Conversely, studies have shown that eating a bunch of sweet stuff can make you crave different flavors like salty or spicy, and eating a bunch of salty stuff can make you crave sour or sweet. So when you layer flavors, you're scratching more than one itch at once. Your brain is left us bored or overwhelmed by any single flavor, so
the combination is more craveable. Food scientists use this in the creation of packaged snacks to make us want to keep eating. It works with textures too. Treats are nice, just watch your portion sizes. The positive side of this slightly sinister food design trick is that when you're done with a snack that involves a salty sweet flavor duo, you might be less tempted to reach for another different flavored food. Today's episode is based on the article why
do sweet and salty taste so good together? On HowStuffWorks dot com, Written by Deborah Ronca, with additional material from my other podcast saver. Brain Stuff is production of by Heart Radio in partnership with how stuffworks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. But for more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. M