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For generations, kids (and plenty of adults) have been asking the same question: "Why do so many things that are good for you have to taste so bad?"
Well, scientists haven't yet figured out how to make broccoli taste like a root beer float, but they are working on a way to at least make healthier foods more palatable. We all know that foods like spinach and broccoli are packed with nutrients like calcium, magnesium and zinc. The only problem is: those same nutrients taste nose-wrinklingly bitter on the tongue.
But what if you could take the taste of, say, spinach down a notch or two?
At the national conference of the American Chemical Society, researches have announced that they're trying to do just that. As Live Science reports, scientists as the Givaudan Flavors Corporation in Ohio have developed an enhanced "bitterness blocker" called GIV3616. Added to food, it targets certain taste buds and keeps them from recognizing bitter tastes.
An estimated 25 percent of the population (and, let's face it, probably 100 percent of kids) are what food scientists call "supertasters," people who have a heightened sensitivity to bitter foods. While vegetables like broccoli and spinach may always taste too bitter to them, even with added bitterness blockers, food companies are hoping to use additives like GIV3616 to make their products healthier. Until now, off-tastes in processed foods have often been masked with things that aren't so great for you, like excess salt, sugar and fat.
As one of the scientists who developed GIV3616 put it: "Blocking flavors we call off-notes could help consumers eat healthier and more varied diets. It could encourage them to switch to non-calorie soft drinks and help children and seniors swallow bitter-tasting medications."
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3-30-2011 @3:39PM Gary said... Great, just what we need... more chemicals added to our food. Parents just need to man up and make their kids eat their veggies like most of had to when we were kinds.
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3-31-2011 @12:22AM E-NUF said... I agree totally. Anything for a buck. This is no different than the Aspertame game.
Thanks a lot Gingrich. Chemical is chemical.
I don't care what they say to justify it.
3-31-2011 @12:32AM Dan said... There are berries Synsepalum dulcificum, that are native to West Africa The tribesmen have been using them for centuries. The Japanese are trying to figure out a way to preserve and then market them. I've seen video of people trying them and then eating bitter foods and remarking that the food tastes sweet. This is not new! It's a good idea though.
3-31-2011 @1:52AM cap10m said... Yea that's for sure I'd hate to eat anything that has chemicals in it.....wait everything has chemicals in it ......you're right better to starve than try to improve taste and encourage good nutrition....what was I thinking.
3-30-2011 @4:54PM stainboy said... "But what if you could take the taste of, say, spinach down a notch or two?"
buy spinach harvested after the frost. it increases the sugar content naturally and is ohhhh so tasty when eaten fresh. quit cooking the stuff until it's sludge, which brings out the bitterness.
the Germans cover their asparagus when it grows to make it more tender and sweet (although it the requires peeling before eating/cooking).
as much as people complain how bitter this or that food is, often it's a matter of harvesting or preparation.
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3-31-2011 @5:38AM SueT said... There are also strains of spinach that are lower acid and less bitter.
3-30-2011 @8:16PM nkiritsis13 said... It would be interesting to see if this led to a decline in High Fructose Corn Syrup dousing already sugar-loaded foods to combat excessive sugar amounts in general food products. It would be nice if more conventional foods were also within reason; e.g. foods with raisins having MORE sweetness thrown in with HFCS because apparently Bran Cereal or something of the likes is just too bitter for the pallet perceived by corporations.
As for veggies, I typically prefer some bitterness because I do not like overly sweet foods. Admittedly, though, I have had some greens that I would consider more appropriate as livestock feed or grass by taste alone.
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3-30-2011 @8:25PM virtues27 said... This is horrifying news!!!! They are planning to make it harder and more expensive to find fresh fruits and vegetables that do not contain food additives that cause things like migraine headaches, heart palpitations, and severely painful rectal spasms that wake you up from a sound sleep in the middle of the night and make you want to cry!
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3-31-2011 @8:53AM LinC said... You're totally missing the point. You can't add this to fresh produce. It's going to be used to sweeten produce that's processed (canned or frozen). Just wash your fresh fruits and veggies if you are worried. I recommend you go to a doctor for your symptoms instead of blaming food additives. Sounds like you might be allergic to something (maybe gluten?).
3-31-2011 @9:05AM virtues27 said... To LinC: I do not have any allergies or celiacs disease. My health is fine. Perfectly healthy people are capable of experiencing these nasty side effects from food additives. Are you aware that they are experimenting with growing broccoli with MSG within the plant itself?
3-30-2011 @8:57PM Sternberg said... We can all eat very healthy whether we eat spinach or not. Raw spinach is probably best for you, any way, and by not cooking it, those bitter compounds are not released.
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3-30-2011 @9:08PM Gary said... Radiation does that !!!
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3-30-2011 @11:03PM Robert said... Yeah let's just take all food and make it taste the same, like candy. Hey, we need more chemicals, we just don't get enough of them. R I G H T !
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3-30-2011 @11:29PM Prinni said... Remember that old song, "Just a spoon full of sugar..." ? Well, if I want sugar on my food, why can't I put on the amount I want instead of everything being so highly sweetened you can't taste anything but sugar? If you want the bitterness out of a veggie, add a bit of baking soda. It takes the bitterness out of most veggies, helps dry beans soften quicker, reduces the smell of veggies cooking and...it helps aid in your digestion. Of course we can't do that because there are not enough chemicals in the baking soda that could cause serious damage to our innards. So let's just keep turning our food supply into mind blowing, innard destroying chemical additives and then try and convince everyone that we are doing this to make our food healthier and so we won't be obese anymore. Get off it!!! Plant a veggie garden of your own and know what you are using on it so you don't have chemicals. Fresh Natural Clean and Healthy. What a concept. I'm sick of hearing about kids that are hyper active and uncontrollable in school. Look what we feed kids. Pop Tarts, Sugar Frosted..., Chocolate coated sugar. Wake up people. You have to feed your kids non sugar foods and naturally sweetened juices like fresh squeezed OJ. Not all store bought. I use to spend one day each weekend cooking for the week so all I had to do was reheat all week and the juice was squeezed the same day and the veggies were prepped so all we had to do was heat and eat or mix some salad dressing and pour it over. It's not hard, a bit time consuming, but healthy and NO Chemicals added.
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3-30-2011 @11:53PM Paula said... Great....another way to add GMO's to our healthy food.....if we weren't raised eating massive amounts of sugar, we would naturally crave the flavors of fruits and vegetables including spinach......
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3-30-2011 @11:53PM sato said... let all those garbage eaters remain so. No one can change by blocking bitternes, and expect people to eat more vegetables, bull crap. Supplements are available to all but people do not care. All those children who do not like vegetables is because mothers cannot cook at all, they are crappy socalled cooks. Go to other countries and you see a different outlook. In US, I saww children drinking soda from the bottle, mothers are killing them with sugar and you expect for them to eat vegetables that taste sweet?
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4-03-2011 @4:07AM ken said... Many vegetables and fruits have already been chemicalized and altered via GMOs and through the seeds. Now chemical companies want to add insult to injury by further poisoning and eliminating the flavor.
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4-01-2011 @7:25PM Yisroel Feldman said... With all of the deadly poisons of the numerous insecticides and fungicides and herbicides and other pesticides that are poured onto our food, how can we even expect our fruits and vegetables to taste any good:???? Our holy, holy scientists are telling us about giving people another toxic piece of medication. What about the most obvious and simple solution -- FOR ONCE, STOP ALL OF THE PESTICIDES!!!!!
Have you ever eaten organically produced (without any pesticides or other chemicals) vegetables?? Thank The Lord, I have; I can tell you that (organic) vegetables -- corn, peas, string beans, broccoli -- DO taste, very good!! Have you ever eaten an organic orange or an organic tangerine or organic grapes?? Well, when you do, you will realize that there is no need at all for any candy or ice cream or whatever!!
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4-06-2011 @1:20PM Steven Ruza said... Id like a little more dirt please and LESS CHEMICALS. Old saying dirt dont hurt is still true today, things that are hurting use is the chemicals! - Steven Ruza
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