Saliva is the chemical media of the mouth. The composition of this media is thus critical to the experience of flavor as well as to explaining individual differences in flavor perception. A host of potential flavor binding proteins in saliva have been identified for decades. Yet, how flavor exposure or dietary patterns might alter the longer term dynamics of human salivary protein expression remains relatively unexplored. In several studies, we have collected data on dietary habits and sensory perception of various flavor compounds, as well as used dietary interventions to explore how these factors may interact with salivary proteomes over time. Through these experiments, we are discovering that many of the previously identified binding proteins in saliva may be modifiable by exposure to their flavor ligands. Furthermore, dietary choices such as fruit and vegetable consumption may alter expression of salivary proteins potentially linked to texture perception, inflammatory response, and enzymatic activity in the mouth. Analyzing the salivary proteomes at the individual level is allowing for improved detection of these effects, as well as expanding our understanding of the variability of salivary proteomes from one person to the next. Thus, a new picture of saliva as a dynamic medium is developing: saliva modifies flavor, which in turn modifies dietary choices. Those choices then influence exposure to flavors, which over time may stimulate altered expression of saliva, and the circle begins anew.

Flavor influences diet, but diet may also influence saliva, which in turn may influence flavor

256th National Meeting (2018)

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