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SALT makes sugar taste sweeter, say researchers at the Leatherhead Food
Research Association in Surrey. The team asked trained tasters to rate the
sweetness of samples of sugared water, some of which had been laced with small
amounts of sodium chloride. The salt-laced samples tasted up to 40 per cent
sweeter than unlaced samples, even though salt has no inherent sweetness (
Food Chemistry, vol 70, p 1). The results support a model which suggests
that receptors in the tongue work more efficiently in the presence of sodium
ions.