Is this sour-to-sweet fruit really a miracle?

by Sarah J. Gim, Posted Apr 30th 2008 @ 4:20PM

It sounds to good to be true -- a berry that makes sour things taste sweet!

The berry is very real. It's called "miracle fruit -- that's actually what it's called -- though the scientific name is Synsepalum dulcificum for those of you who want to get technical. And more for the technical folks, a protein in the fruit binds to taste buds and alters the tongue's so-called sweet receptors to activate when sour foods are eaten. Sour things taste sweet for about an hour after the berry is eaten.

It may seem just a novelty or a fun foodie trick to do at parties, but there could be some health and medical uses for the berry once the science people figure it out. I can think of a few now: lose weight by tricking your taste buds into thinking that extremely low calorie foods are actually as sweet as dessert, and any other use in which people need a sugar substitute.

[via: Gimundo]

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Filed Under: Health & Medical, Ingredients
Tags: fruit, miracle berry, miracle fruit, MiracleBerry, sour, sweet

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

4-30-2008 @5:18PM Dr. Electro said... I need to try this berry. I'm diabetic so something like this could be really helpful in my diet. Thanks for the heads up.

One question: Where can I get some?
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4-30-2008 @6:46PM Carlos said... ColdMud.com had a story from the BBC about a U.S. company that was going to market the Miracle Berry in the early 70s. The FDA & sugar industry stopped it happening.
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5-01-2008 @7:33AM fuchsoid said... I heard the BBC programme last week and was intrigued enough to check on eBay; there seem to be several people selling these berries, or an extract of them. I don't know how many people will be able to use it, but the BBC story can be listened to here;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/pip/oqqv1/

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5-01-2008 @2:17PM Ryan Claussen said... I bought some dried miracle fruit extract from:
http://miracleuk.info/

If you click on international orders you can get the extract shipped to the US.

This stuff is amazing. When I first tried it I ate two lemons, a lime, and a grapefruit. They all tasted like the best fruit/candy I had ever tasted.
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