Football players spit so much because exercise increases the amount of protein in saliva. When you exercise, the amount of protein secreted into the saliva increases. A protein mucus named MUC5B makes your saliva thicker when you’re exercising which makes it more difficult to swallow so we tend to spit more. It may occur during exercise because we breathe through our mouths more. MUC5B could activate to stop our mouths from drying out, therefore.
100 Mind-Blowing Spit Facts
Humans can’t taste food without saliva. Another fun fact about the body: You wouldn’t taste your food without spit. Your saliva dissolves food, which allows the receptors in your taste buds to detect food molecules.
You produce about 40,000 litres of spit in your lifetime. Or to put it another way, enough spit to fill around five hundred bathtubs – yuck!