• Question: Why do our tears taste salty?

    Asked by Lily to Hayley, Jimi on 18 Mar 2016.
    • Photo: Hayley Moulding

      Hayley Moulding answered on 18 Mar 2016:

      There are little bits of salt dissolved in your tears. This helps to keep your eyes clean and keep balance of little chemicals in and around your eyes. Salt is in every cell in our body (pretty much all cells!) We always need salts as they help to make sure our hearts, our muscles and our nerves work properly. They also keep the eyes working properly too!

    • Photo: Jimi Wills

      Jimi Wills answered on 18 Mar 2016:

      Our tears actually contain salt. This is partly by necessity, because pumping out water is a lot easier if you pump salt out with it, and partly by design, because it help the antibodies and immune cells in your tears work better.

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