marko
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CaCO3 mouth reaction
Hi, kind of a silly question but I'm curious anyway.
When you take tums, i find if you don't eat or brush your teeth after, after an hour or so your mouth gets a rather bad, bitter taste.
I presume it's the CaCO3 reacting with something, but I'm not sure. Perhaps it is reacting with lactic acid from bacteria, and form calcium lactate?
Or maybe CO2 liberated from this makes calcium bicarb?
Not really sure, curious if someone knows.
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Pyridinium
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In general, calcium salts can cause a bitter aftertaste, and lactate definitely does, so you might be on to something with the lactic acid idea.
Also, one or more of the "inactive ingredients" could be modulating the binding to the bitter taste receptors (TAS2R). I say this because some people
think Rolaids do not have as much of a bitter aftertaste as Tums, but then again that could be subjective.
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unionised
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My guess is that it's the messed up bacteria attacking your mouth or saliva.
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