- Food digestion starts in the mouth
Food digestion starts immediately after food and liquids enter your mouth. In order for your body to properly digest the foods you eat and liquids you drink, your mouth needs to do its work, starting with your teeth grinding the foods into smaller pieces.
2.“Chew your food” is an excellent advice
When you chew your food, you are preparing it to go through various steps in the digestion process. By doing so you are also helping your stomach and intestines to get more nutrients out of the food. The result is better overall effectiveness and health.
3. Saliva binds and lubricates
Your saliva contains mucus that binds the foods together and makes them very slippery. The goal of this is simple: to turn the food you just ate into a soapy mixture that will slide down your throat easily, without causing any damage to your esophagus.
3. Saliva lets you taste dry foods
You would not be able to taste dry foods if you did not have saliva in your mouth. Saliva also helps you taste the toxins. If you were to eat something that is about to go bad, yet you didn’t have any saliva, you wouldn’t be able to tell that the food is going bad.
4. Saliva decreases acidity
When you eat acidic foods, there’s always a probability that high acidity will cause harm to your mouth and your teeth. Your saliva contains a chemical called sodium bicarbonate, which reduces acidity in your mouth.
5. Saliva begins the digestion of starches
When you eat starchy foods, your saliva releases a substance that starts breaking down starches into simpler elements. This is a very important and useful step because your body needs sugar yet it can’t do much with starches.
6. Saliva kills bacteria
Saliva contains lysozyme. It is a substance that can kill bad bacteria in foods you eat. It also kills bacteria that try to grow on your teeth and in your mouth. Some natural bacteria can cause your body as much harm as the worst artificial chemicals, which is why the role of saliva is so important.
7. Saliva improves oral hygiene
In addition to killing bacteria in the food and in your mouth, your saliva regularly flushes away food particles that would otherwise stay in your mouth. This function of saliva helps you maintain good oral hygiene.
8. Don’t drink fluids with meals
When you drink fluids with meals, they dilute both your saliva and your stomach acid. For this reason, you want to wait for an hour or two after consuming food and then you can drink all the water you want.
9. Stomach acid can do magic
Stomach acid is the key to how and why your body can deal with pretty much anything and everything you throw into it, including bad bacteria in your food, particles of dust, mold and so on.
