Why Does Orange Juice Taste Bad After Brushing Your Teeth?
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Michael from Braham asks: Why does orange juice taste so bad after brushing your teeth? Good Question.
Chocolate and peanut go together, so do cheese and broccoli or bread and jam. But put together, an acidic OJ and a minty toothpaste and you get what one Minneapolis man calls, "nasty grossness."
Scientists aren't exactly sure why, but they do have a couple of hypotheses.
According to Gary Reineccius, a flavor scientist at the University of Minnesota, whenever we put anything in our mouth, the flavor sticks around in our teeth and saliva. Toothpaste is very flavorful and even its residuals will taint the flavor of a flavorful orange juice.
Another theory from the American Chemical Society involves the presence of a compound found in many toothpastes called sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS). It's the part of the toothpaste that suds up.
The SLS can mess with a person's taste buds by suppressing the sweet receptors and destroying the lipids that block the bitter ones. Basically, toothpaste can make it harder to taste sweet and easier to taste bitter.