“Why Cola Enhances the Salty Taste: The Science Behind It”

Opening a bag of chips is always nice, but with a bottle of cola you get an even better taste sensation – and now we know why. Cola enhances the salty taste.

If you like to combine a salty snack with a sip of cola, you’re not alone. The acid in cola opens the sodium channels on the taste receptors of your tongue, it turns out research published on the preprint server bioRxiv. This makes the salty taste even more intense.

Phosphoric acid

molecular physiologist Daniel Mohr Collier of the University of Tennessee Health Center in the United States and his colleagues applied two different aqueous solutions to the tongues of twelve people. The first solution consisted of only water, the second also contained a little table salt.

After identifying the saline solution, the participants rinsed their mouths with water and started the process again. With each repetition, the second solution contained less salt than before until participants could no longer perceive the difference.

In a subsequent test, the participants did not rinse their mouths with water in between, but with diluted phosphoric acid. That’s the acid that’s in soft drinks like cola to give them a slightly sour taste. During this phosphoric acid test, the participants were able to identify the saline solution at lower salt concentrations.

Klauwkicker

To estimate why salt perception improves in this way, the scientists examined the immature eggs of the klauwkikker. That frog is widely used in research to so-called ion channels, such as the sodium channel, which allow sodium ions to pass through cell membranes. For example, the researchers discovered that exposure to phosphoric acid weakens the sodium channels of cells on the outside of the frog’s eggs, so-called epithelial sodium channels (ENAC), langer openstonden.

These sodium channels are also located in the taste receptors of our tongue, and influence how salt is absorbed in our body. By opening the channels, phosphoric acid causes our taste buds to perceive a taste as saltier.

More or less salt

Collier and his team aren’t sure why phosphoric acid opens these ENACs, or whether this effect causes us to eat more or less salt. “More activity in the channel could mean that we can better detect lower concentrations of salt, so that you need less salt and eat less of it,” says Collier. ‘But the hypothesis actually works the other way as well. The pleasant salty taste can become more intense, making people want to eat more salt.’

molecular physiologist Other Kirabo of Vanderbilt University Medical Center in the US says this result opens up possibilities for the treatment of high blood pressure in the future. You may be putting less salt in your food when a sour taste or the manipulation of the ENACs has enhanced your ability to taste salt, she says. “Perhaps the food industry could use acid to enhance salt perception, which could reduce the pressure on the health care system for cardiovascular disease.”