Why Everything Tastes Different After You Brush

At times we mistakenly stumble upon tastes that go great together and we make such food combinations a norm. I’ve seen people try out different food combinations and come out with great results and end up adopting such combinations for future use. I’ve seen bread in union with beans, eggs, butter, mayonnaise and even avocado pear.

Have you ever taken a gulp of orange juice immediately after brushing? If you have, then you’re aware that the resultant taste may be the worst a person can possibly experience. The minty flavor of toothpaste may be pleasant, and orange juice has a nice, sweet citrus taste, but the two combined, form a hybrid that resembles neither and is considered disgusting.

And it’s not just with orange juice only; toothpaste changes the tastes of other things too.

What is the reason behind this?

There are lots of theories out there, but there is a widely accepted one that is currently available. In this, the culprit fingered for being responsible is Sodium laureth sulfate (SLS). Most toothpastes contain sodium laureth sulphate which is responsible for making the toothpaste foam up in your mouth. It’s also responsible for everything tasting bad afterward.

While SLS makes brushing our teeth a lot easier, it does more than make foam. It affects our taste buds in two ways. One, it suppresses the receptors on our taste buds that perceive sweetness, inhibiting our ability to pick up the sweet notes of food and drink. And, as if that wasn't enough, they break up the phospholipids on our tongue. These phospholipids inhibit our receptors for bitterness and keep bitter tastes from overwhelming us, but when they're broken down, bitter tastes get enhanced.

So by inhibiting sweet receptors and destroying phospholipids, SLS dulls the sweetness and promotes the bitter taste in orange juice. SLS in essence enhances bitter tastes and inhibits sweet ones, making everything taste different after brushing.