The Science Behind Why People Have Been Dipping Their Testicles In Soy Sauce

TikTok users have been dipping their testicles in soy sauce in the hope that they might taste it, and no, you have not misread this first sentence.

It doesn't take much to start up an online trend and for it to go viral. Some of them are for a good cause, such as the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Thousands of people around the world had ice water poured over their heads in the name of raising money and awareness for charity.

Some viral trends aren't for quite as noble a cause. People urging each other to eat Tide pods, for example. The latest viral trend won't do as much damage to your insides as that, but we would still not recommend giving it a try. TikTok users have been dipping their testicles in soy sauce based on some science that was published seven years ago.

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The reason they are doing this is because the 2013 article has been misinterpreted as stating that testicles have tastebuds, reports ScienceAlert. A food and nutrition scientist from the University of Newcastle explained how the misconception has arisen. "These are not taste buds, they don't activate the gustatory cortex in the brain," explained Emma Beckett. They are taste receptors but in a lot of cases, they don't seem to serve any function at all.

"Where they are functional, they are detecting the same molecules as in the mouth, but triggering different responses," Beckett goes on to point out. Since things like bacteria have sweet structural compounds, it's likely that these rogue receptors' purpose is to detect that sort of thing. As for the ones in the testicles, well, even science isn't sure what their purpose is just yet.

One thing is for certain, they're not there so that humans can taste food with their genitals. Beckett equates dipping your testicles in soy sauce to rubbing it on the outside of your cheek. The only reason people who have done the dastardly act will have thought they might have tasted soy sauce is because they would have been able to smell it. So you can stop doing it now, guys. Please, stop it.

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