What role does the saliva have in tasting?
491742
None saliva breaks down starches with salivary amylase\nYou taste with your taste buds which are the little raised bumps on your tongue \nCheck out tase buds on wikipedia
1106863
Negative.\nBrush, brush all you want....no harm done.\nIt's using a metallic scouring brush that just might prove me wrong.\n\nAnd anyway, did you know that almost all the sensation of taste is part of the sense of smell? \nThe tongue itself only gets a very limited number of tastes....like sweet, sour, tart and savory.
886332
PAPILLAE, AKA TASTE BUDS!
1063561
provide saliva to break down food,or if thats not the cheek you are talking about  the rear ones make a good sitting place
68467
Sounds like a title for a school science fair project.\n\nYour basic senses can overlap in your daily life, including when you eat.  Doesn't the food taste different when you have a stuff nose during a cold?  Haven't you ever seen someone hold their nose when eating something they didn't like?\n\nIf you think about it -- sight affects taste, too.  Would you eat a green steak or drink blue coffee?  Even if they were both of the highest quality?  Our senses overlap and cause crazy reactions to simple things sometimes...
1147148
bacteria forms in our mouths from the saliva pretty quickly, whether weve eaten or drunk anything
1017112
Saliva helps to masticate food and adds fluid so swallowing is easier.  It contains amylase which begins assisting in chemical break down of starches.\n\nOur body, serum has a pH of 7.40 +/- 0.02.  Only under extreme circumstances would our body pH deviate beyond the variance above.  Eating would not change it.  \n\nSwallowing a whole bottle of aspirin might, though (aspirin is an acid).  The kidneys and our respiration system would work very hard to get it back to normal as soon as possible.
932497
its due to salivary glands (beneath tongue) secreting saliva
225050
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/body/articles/senses/tongue_experiment.shtml
280630
Sialic Acids have a few functions that I'm aware of. It gives saliva its slippery feel, can also act as a decoy for invading pathogens, and can act as a receptor for influenza viruses to allow attachment to mucous cells.
925254
try this.....\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongue
363256
It is a liquid your body produces to add moisture to food for easier swallowing and contains a solution starts the digestion of the food even before you swallow it.
1114182
I am not a professional, but I can tell you what I do know.  Bacteria and yeasts live in people's mouths.   In fact, it is principally yeast that contributes to plaque.  That's why sugary foods are not good for your teeth.  Yeasts feed on sugar.  The more sugar you eat, the more yeasts you will have in your mouth.  If the person who gave you oral sex eats a lot of sugar, drinks a lot of beer (which is fermented with yeast) and has poor dental hygene, he likely has large colonies of yeasts in his mouth, and may have passed on some to you.  If you also have a poor diet and eat a lot of sugar, you are creating an environment in your body that helps these organisms grow.
1174845
As long as it's still connected to your body it will still be normal, but you will temporarily muffle your sense of taste.\n\nGo ahead - allow your tongue to dry out and then put a little sugar on the tip of your dry tongue - you probably won't taste it at all.  Saliva helps facilitate your taste buds.  Without it life isn't nearly as interesting.
262360
Taste buds are small structures on the upper surface of the tongue, soft palate, and epiglottis that provide information about the taste of food being eaten.\n\nThe human tongue has about 10,000 taste buds. The majority of taste buds on the tongue sit on raised protrusions of the tongue surface called papillae. \n\nFive primary taste sensations: \nsalty \nsour \nsweet \nbitter \numami
168554
collect your saliva. your salivary glands are a natural and abundant of source of the enzyme amylase.
104472
Yes small molecules are drifting in the air and the olfactory nerves pick them up and the brain deciphers them.  Also as a side note, I believe it is 60 percent of taste is made up from what you smell.  That is why when you have a cold and can't smell food tastes so bland.