It seems that it’s not just by contact with saliva but that it thickens saliva through the bloodstream as well. Anyone know how it does this?
Maybe I can answer my own question partly:
I’m betting your body quickly removes the majority of water and passes that along and you are then left with the mucus component of milk.
btw, what do you mean about thickening saliva through the bloodstream? Does everyone have saliva in their blood or just you?
I don’t think it’s from the casein because the same thing happens to your saliva when you drink lemonade.
I asked about this here once before (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=116698&highlight=saliva), but we never really got to the bottom of it.
Dairy does not thicken secretions. If you have a milk allergy to the dairy proteins (like casein), your secretions won’t get thicker, you’ll just produce more of them. Same way a person with an allergy to pollen produces more secretions when they get exposed to them.
QtM, MD
I agree with QtM, it is not a given that milk thickens saliva. Personally, I have never experienced this, and I drink lots of milk.
I have a milk allergy - and it does SEEM like you have thicker mucous. But it’s just phlegm. (Body sees it as an infection, etc). It’s just an allergic reaction. Not thicker saliva.
I know that there is a contingency that believes that the milk/mucous thing is a myth but there does seem to be a difference in the viscosity of my mucous a while after I drink milk. Apparently many other people get the the same response. I’ve seen some sources say that most people are allergic to casein so perhaps that’s why. Couldn’t there be an increase in the protein content of the saliva (or undigested lactose?) and not merely in the amount of saliva?
To whoever asked about via the bloodstream: Do you really not know what I mean by that? I’m speaking about the various proteins and sugars that end up in the bloodstream as a result of eating dairy and their ultimate effect on saliva.
If this is the cause why is it inly cows milk? 100% of egg whites, 80% of spare ribs and 15% of bread are also foreign proteins. yet no one complains of mucous problems with thiose foods.
It does. Whether it produces thick secretions or thickens secretions already present, it indisputably thickens secretions. This is true for many people ( as attested in this thread). Watching me try to spit after drinking milk would be prettty gross. And I don’t have any milk allergies, not even very slight ones. I’ve happily drunk 2 litres of milk in a sitting without any effect whatsoever.
The “contingency” that believes the milk/mucous thing is a myth is the entire mainstream medical community.
http://www.danahospitality.ca/DANANutritionTipsNovember2002.html
And I for one have no physiological idea whatsoever of what you might be thinking about concerning whatever mysterious processes you think happen in the bloodstream.
Exapno Milk doesn’t necessarily need to cause the production of more mucous to make whatever is produced to be different in quality.
really milk does not thicken mucus or cause more to be produced. What does happen though is that the milk mixes with the mucus at times and basically adds to the volume even though really overall the mucus is more likely thinner than normal with the milk mixed in it. I think it has something to do with the surface tension of the milk and the mucus.
While I agree with Qadgop and Exapno, I have to ask:
What is it that causes some people, after drinking milk, to claim that they have increased mucous production? Do they also have increased mucous production after drinking things other than milk?
Milk can leave a thin film on the tongue, which might get interpreted as phlegm or mucous. But I beleive much of it is psychological. Studies have shown that many of the people who exhibit symptoms of lactose intolerance after drinking milk do not have any decrease in lactase production that would account for it. People “know” that milk-drinking increases mucous. Therefore, any result which might feel like increased mucous (or thickening saliva or whatever) is interpreted that way.
But since these results disappear when they don’t know what they are drinking, I don’t think that it is from anything actually from milk in the body, as in KidCharlemagne’s mysterious particles floating around in the bloodstream.
What’s with the attitude?
Yeah, this is a different thing than what Qadgop was talking about. It seems reasonable to me that this milky film can combine with saliva and yield the glorious substance Blake mentions spitting above.
A small subset of of the one or two percent of the population who have known milk protein allergies do have a reaction that may include increased histamine production. This is, however, primarily a nasal reaction of the mucous membranes rather than an increased production of saliva. I don’t know where your unsourced quote came from, but it is not true that casein affects everyone’s immune systems.
Milk sugars, BTW, never enter the bloodstream and play no part in any immune system reactions. All intolerance reactions in adults are strictly intestinal.
The vast, overwhelming majority of people who claim to have increased mucous from milk (tellingly, it’s usually from milk drinking not from dairy hidden in other foods) are not allergic to the milk proteins (of which there are more than casein). If a histamine-producing immune system reaction does not take place, there is no physiological means for the - very few - stray proteins that might enter the bloodstream to increase or thicken saliva.
Kid, if you want to present a scientific case for what you’re saying, I’ll be happy to listen.
So if you spat into a glass without drinking any milk, and then you added some milk to it, the saliva/milk mixture would magically become more viscous than either ingredient was by itself?
I’ll have to do the experiment at home, but I don’t think that is what’s going on. I think that there is some property in the milk that the body reacts to by increasing the amount of enzymes in the saliva.
Ummmm I’m asking a question, not making a statement. By bloodstream I meant in contrast to direct contact with the saliva from eating/drinking it. I really don’t think it’s too difficult to infer what I meant and in either case I don’t see why your being so smug.
Exapno Mapcase, just hang on a second. Just for the record, my milk allergy is not lactose intolerance or a nasal allergy. It does not effect my intestinal system or my nose. At All.
I get headaches - and if I’ve drunk a lot (say 2 cups in the morning) by afternoon I’m coughing up phlegm. Thick ooky phlegm. The histamine reaction is in the bronchia.
Now, whenever I’ve seen my allergist about this, he attributes it to my milk allergy. Not once has he said it was a nasal allergy.