The phytonutrients in foods that have been found to be so beneficial to health are responsible in large part for the "bad" taste of many of the foods high in these important nutrients, a new research review from the University of Washington (UW) reports.
Despite the fact that these phytonutrients have been associated with cancer prevention and other health benefits, the food industry has devoted decades of work to removing them, due to the fact that these trace chemicals taste bitter, acrid or astringent. They achieve this through methods such as selective breeding and a variety of debittering processes.
Researchers note that when it comes to phytonutrients, the demands of good taste and good health may be wholly incompatible.
"Many people don't like to eat vegetables - and the feeling is mutual," Dr. Adam Drewnowski, director of the UW Nutritional Sciences Program said. "Plants protect themselves against being eaten by secreting natural pesticides and other bitter-tasting toxins. In small amounts, the phenols, flavanoids, isoflavones and other chemicals are proving to be good for us."
Unfortunately, a dislike of these flavors has been ingrained in most people by nature. Humans and other animals have long associated bitter or sour flavors with spoiled or poisonous food. That is why food manufacturers routinely remove these compounds from plant foods through selective breeding and a variety of debittering processes.
The solution, he says, is in using the wisdom found in Mediterranean cuisine, where for generations, cooks have coped with bitter vegetables by seasoning them lightly with salt and dashes of olive oil. The oil in particular blunts the bitter flavors of phytonutrients.
Debittering foods, either chemically during processing, or by breeding bitterness out of such things as broccoli and zucchini, has been a focal point of the industry for decades. Unfortunately, this focus on taste may be coming at the expense of our health.
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, December 2000; 72, 1424-1435 and University Of Washington
I am fond of telling my patients the opposite. If it tastes good you had better spit it out as it is not good for you. Actually this is a humorous exaggeration, but there is an element of truth to it. I have found though the best way to "spruce vegetables up" is to juice them. The additional ingredients I add allow the mixture to be more palatable and I can crank down nearly three pounds of vegetables a day that way.
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