Do you need more bitterness in your belly?

My all-time favourite green leafy vegetable is Rocket. I just adore it. I crave the bitterness and flavour! Lucky for me, and we’ve got an endless supply of it in the garden. With all the buzz around gut healing foods like broth, gelatin, demulcents (i.e. slippery elm) and fermented foods… are we overlooking a very important piece of the puzzle? Bitter foods?Naturopaths use herbs like Andrographis, Gentian, Golden Seal and Wormwood, mostly for their role at stimulating digestion, all the time. They are amazingly versatile and medicinal herbs.But, from a dietary perspective, have we become bitter-phobic? Our Western palate is very much conditioned to appreciate sweet, savoury, salty and even sour foods. The ancient European tradition of “digestive” bitters never really caught on here in Australia, nor do we embrace the Chinese ideal of including a bitter food as part of every meal. Shame really.What makes a food bitter?Bitter compounds such as iridoids, sesquiterpene, lactones and alkaloids, occur widely throughout the plant kingdom. They are “secondary plant metabolites”, meaning that they serve no nutritional purpose to the plant, but instead are used by the plant to protect itself against potentially harmful microbes and oxidative damage. Unsurprisingly, they confer the same benefits to us!Why are bitters important?We have about 30 bitter taste bud receptors. We don’t just have these bitter receptors in our mouth however, they’re also present further down the digestive tract.Bitter compounds let us know we’ve had enough to eat (via gut hormones); boost enzyme secretion to help us break down assimilate nutrients; support bile production and liver health; promote appetite when it’s low; help with parasite eradication; and can help ease symptoms such as constipation, flatulence, heartburn and nausea. They’re also considered “cooling” in nature, so can be beneficial for excess heat and inflammation. Impressive huh?!Bitter foods and compounds can even help with blood sugar control and insulin resistance (not surprising in some ways, as we know that Bitter Melon is a very effective and well-known traditional medicine for blood sugar regulation). We also know that when you increase bitter foods and activate those taste receptors, sugar cravings rapidly decline!It seems that humans have developed a selective tolerance to bitter foods as they provided much nutrition in times of famine. Research also indicates that the ability to sense bitterness varies from person to person. Those that are highly sensitive are known as “supertasters”. My nutrigenomic profile reveals I’m a supertaster! This is good news, as it seems that supertasters may be at a health advantage (more on this another day)...