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saliva for baby's digestion

J

jen86

Messages
16
a friend wanted to know if the're saliva enzyme helps their baby's digestion?
could you answer that for her?
thank you.
 
Jonathan Edwards

Jonathan Edwards

"Gibberish"
Messages
5,256
jen86 said:
a friend wanted to know if the're saliva enzyme helps their baby's digestion?
could you answer that for her?
thank you.
Click to expand...

The main enzyme in saliva as far as I know is ptyalin or salivary amylase. It is inactivated as soon as it gets to the stomach. That suggests that its real job is just to clean your teeth of starch that might encourage bacterial growth and plaque or caries. I am pretty sure that is has no use in digesting food as such.
 
M

msf

Senior Member
Messages
3,650
I thought the fact that bread tastes sweet if you much on it for a long time was proof that amylase has this effect? I guess the question then is how long we should be chewing our food for.
 
U

Undisclosed

Senior Member
Messages
10,157
I would just like to add a reminder here that this particular forum is for general discussion related to ME/CFS not for general health discussion.

Thank you.
 
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