We all have a favorite: sweet, salty, savory, sour, umami…

The variations in flavors can really make or break a dish, and lead you to your new favorite snack while you’re at it.

Thanks to our taste buds – little receptor cells on our tongues that help us to taste our food – we can distinguish between all these different flavor sensations without even really thinking about it.

Gathered in clusters on different areas across your tongue, the taste buds are doing all the heavy lifting when it comes to savoring your tasty lunch.

And it seems logical that if you want something sweet, you reach for something containing sugar: think donuts, fruit, candies.

If you’re in the mood for something salty, on the other hand, you’d reach for some chips or fries perhaps.

And if you’re eating some bitter fruit, maybe a grapefruit or pomelo, that you wished were sweeter? Logic has it that you’d sprinkle it with a nice glazing of sugar.

But what if science had another solution?

An article published in the academic journal Acta Physiologica has revealed that if you want your fruit to taste sweeter, you might be better off adding a little salt.

Sounds counterintuitive, right?

Well it turns out that the receptor cells in the tastebuds are complex, with some receptors identifying salt as a sweet taste.

According to the study, which tested the scientists’ theories on mice, the T1R receptors that are responsible for detecting sweet tastes can be removed without completely obliterating the ability to taste sweet things.

The scientists found that even when mice didn’t have T1R receptors, they were able to respond to sweet flavors.

There were two reasons for this, the study decided.

Primarily, this is because of a particular protein – the sodium-glucose cotransporter 1 – that allows the body to transport glucose (and that sweet-taste) into cells with the aid of sodium.

The test mice were given glucose on its own, and glucose with a little salt added.

In their experiments, they found that the brains of the mice responded much quicker to the glucose that also contained a little sodium content.

At the same time, the researchers suggest, the chloride ions in salt may tell the brain that a food is sweet, whilst the sodium ions tell the brain that the food is salty.

When they tested the mice by giving them a salty solution, their brains picked up on the salty taste as well as a sweet one. Once the receptors that pick up on chloride in the food were blocked in the mice, so too was their ability to perceive sweetness in the same solution.

While mice are very different to humans, this suggests that there is logic to adding salt to your bitter fruit to help it taste sweet.

Just don’t add too much.

If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read a story that reveals Earth’s priciest precious metal isn’t gold or platinum and costs over $10,000 an ounce!