The biggest problem, which every fitness enthusiast who has a ‘sweet tooth’ or people having diabetes or everyone who kills their craving for calories counts. Will you believe me, if I tell you that you can enjoy the sweets to your heart’s content without worrying about going out of shape or fear of having an insulin spike. This may sound a crazy idea but there exist few fruits that turn everything sweet or amplify the sweetness after they are eaten.
The phenomenon of change in sense of taste, after consumption of berry known as miracle fruit, is known as ‘flavour tripping’. The protein in berry coats the taste buds, causing numbness in receptors of taste buds.
Synsepalum dulcificum, popularly known as Miracle fruit is a red berry native to West Africa. French explorer Chevalier des Marchais, was the first person outside West Africa to observe and document the magic of miracle fruit, when consuming the berry before a meal of sour palm wine and gruel.
In 1968, scientists were successful in isolating active protein which made everything taste sweet. The protein was named as miraculin because of miraculous behaviour. When miracle fruit is consumed, the miraculin in the berry binds to the taste buds. The miraculin suppresses the sour receptors and rewires sweet receptors to fire.
The pulp of berry tastes more like a less flavorful cranberry although the majority of berry is a bitter seed. The small amount of pulp gives a great impact when left in the mouth for a minute and spread all over the tongue.
The miraculin’s effects last about an hour, modifying sour taste to sweet without affecting other taste sensations. Sweet foods will taste about the same, if not overly sweet. As saliva will wash away the coating, the sour reception will return to normal. However, this fruit won’t be effective for flavour tripping if cooked because miraculin being a protein gets denatured when heated.
Although artichoke is a vegetable having many health benefits and full of nutrients, it contains an acid called cynarin. The cynarin does not have a strong taste of its own, but it inhibits the sweet receptors. As you continue eating food, the cynarin is gradually washed away making the next bite tasting sweet and if it’s a sweet dish then it will amplify the sweetness.