>> Dr. Terry Simpson: M why is it that some of you gag at Brussels sprouts?

Okay, maybe that's just me. While others

munch arugula like it's candy. Today, we're diving

into the world of bitterness. Why it exists, why your

stomach can taste it, how bitters went from medicine to

cocktails, and why gin and tonic isn't

just a refreshing drink. It's actually

a medical treatment.

I am your Chief Medical Explanationist, Dr. Terry Simpson,

and this is Fork you Fork

University, where we make sense of the madness, bust

some myths, and teach you a little bit about food and maybe

some bitter medicine.

Bitterness is nature's way of saying,

hey, maybe you don't want to eat that now. It didn't

work when mom fed me Brussels sprouts, but it is a,

uh, built in warning system, like your body's version of

a car alarm, except instead of just

annoying you, it's trying to keep you from poisoning

yourself. Historically,

many toxic plants have bitter

compounds. So our ancestors who were pretty good

at detecting bitterness were less likely to snack

on something deadly. So congratulations.

Your picky eating habits might just be a leftover

survival benefit. I knew those Brussels sprouts

were not meant for me. But here's where it

gets weirder. While some bitter compounds

are toxic, others are packed with health

benefits. Think of foods like kale,

coffee, dark chocolate,

turmeric, all bitter, all loaded with

antioxidants and nutrients. The problem?

Not everybody's taste buds

agree. Have you ever wondered why some people can

sip black coffee and smile, while others, if you

give them a cup of black coffee, react like they just licked a

9 volt battery? It all comes down to

genetics. In fact, it's a gene called the

TAS2R, uh, 38, that

determines whether you're a supertaster, meaning bitter

flavors hit you like a freight train, or a non

taster, meaning you're oblivious to

them. Supertasters experience

bitterness so intensely that food like Brussels

sprouts and grapefruit are borderline

inedible. Non tasters, on the other hand, can drink

a bitter ipa, beer and black coffee without

a second thought. And then there's the rest of us. We're all

somewhere in between, politely tolerating kale in

the name of health. Now, here's a plot

twist. Your bitter taste buds

aren't just on your tongue. Your stomach

has them too. Yep, your stomach can

taste bitterness. And when it does, it actually

reacts when these bitter

compounds hit these stomach receptors. And that's what the bitter

tastes are. They slow down

digestion. Which means that

bitter foods can help you feel full longer because

your stomach holds onto them instead of rushing

them through. This is one of the reasons why a meal

packed with bitter greens keeps you satisfied with while

that sugary breakfast cereal leaves you starving an hour

later. But that's not all. But wait, there's more.

Those stomach taste buds also act as

bodyguards against potential foodborne

threats. If your stomach detects

something bitter, especially if it wasn't supposed to be

bitter, it pumps the brakes on digestion.

The idea is to keep those potentially harmful

compounds from reaching the small intestine too quickly,

where they can do damage. Think of it like airport security.

Before anything moves on, your stomach is running a

background check. So imagine this.

These bitter compounds have something deadly in

them, and your stomach is going to create more

acid and not let things through. And that

acid is going to try and destroy that, whether it's a bacteria

or a virus or whatever. And if it doesn't

let it through like it's truly a bad bug,

you will end up bloating and bloating and bloating and getting more

nauseated. And finally, your stomach will expel

them violently. We call that vomiting.

Speaking of bitterness and digestion, let's talk about

bitters. You know those little bottles that the

bartenders dramatically shake into your Old

Fashioned, or in my case, a Manhattan. Before

bitters were the secret ingredient in cocktails, they were

actually medicine. Yep. Bitters started

out as, as an herbal remedy for digestive

issues. And they've been used for centuries to

help with bloating, nausea, and sluggish

digestion. Monks in the Middle ages created

bitter herbal tonics to help with digestion.

Basically, it was an early form of Pepto

Bismol, but with more wormwood

and fewer weird pink bubbles. By the 1800s,

bitters had become, uh, a staple for apothecaries, early

pharmacies. And people would take a few drops of them before meals

as a digestive to aid in digestion. And

some of those famous brands of bitters today, like

Angostera or Peychaud's, were originally sold as

health tonics before bartenders figured out they could

make that alcohol taste even better.

And here's why they bitter compounds

in these herbal extracts activate those

stomach taste receptors we talked about earlier,

delaying gastric emptying and helping break

down food more efficiently. So while today

you might think of bitters as a fancy cocktail ingredient, they

actually have a long history of keeping people's

digestive enzymes in check. It's

medicine with a side of booze. What's not to

love. And during prohibition,

in New Orleans, or New Orleans if you happen

to be from there, bitters were held by pharmacies

and people would actually be able to legally buy

bitters as their medicine. You

know, get drunk on, uh, the government's time.

But now let's talk about a bitter drink that was actually

used as medicine. Gin and tonic. Now,

I'm not telling you to replace your multivitamins with happy hour,

but back in the day, gin and tonic wasn't just a

refreshing cocktail, it was a

legitimate treatment for malaria. So here's how it

happened. In the 1800s, British soldiers and

colonists in tropical regions were getting absolutely

wrecked by malaria. And the best known

treatment at the time was quinine, a bitter

compound found in the bark of a tree.

Quinine was incredibly effective at treating and

preventing malaria. But there was a problem.

It tasted awful. Imagine

chewing aspirin mixed with tree bark and

regret. So to make it more

palatable, they mixed it with sugar, lime

soda, water, and thus tonic water was

born. But British soldiers weren't about to drink

just tonic water. So they did what any

reasonable person would do. They added gin. The

result? The drink that kept malaria at

bay while also making colonial life slightly

more tolerable. Missing old England. And just like that,

the gin and tonic became the most functional

cocktail in history. The 4 o'clock

high tea in many of the tropical

sites, Africa, India was replaced

with gin and tonics. Now, before you go

prescribing yourself gin and tonic for medical reasons, let me

clarify. Modern tonic water contains

trace amounts of quinine, and malaria prevention

has come a long way since then, but they still use it as an

excuse to order at the bar. I'm drinking this one for historical

and medicinal purposes.

Finally, quinine also has a use in

heart medicine and it's used for cardiac

arrhythmias. Some of us are

allergic to quinine. And if I were to

drink a, ah, gin and tonic, for example, with normal

quinine or some of the quinine filled ones like Indian

fever, I will actually have fevers

from that. Today's

malarial parasites, by the way, are mostly

resistant to quinine. So we just don't use it for that

anymore.

So before you start adding bitters to everything, let's go over some ground rules.

Bitter bitters are not for everyone. In fact, for some people, they

do more harm than good. Who should avoid

bitters? Pregnant and breastfeeding

individuals. Bitters contain compounds that can be harmful

during pregnancy and they're infused with alcohol.

They're not baby friendly children Again, they're alcohol

based, not the children. So don't

mix those into your kids. Grape juice or apple

juice. People with gastrointestinal disease. So

if you have ulcers, inflammatory bowel disease, or any condition that makes

your gut sensitive, bitters can actually

worsen the irritation. They can cause

nausea, cramping, diarrhea, gas, and a sore stomach.

In other words, bitters can be great for digestion if

your digestion system is in good shape. But if you're dealing

with some gut issues, maybe skip the bitters and talk to

your doctor before adding that routine. So

what have we learned today? Bitterness. One of the

tastes on the taste bud exists to protect us. But

not all bitter foods are bad. Some

people taste bitterness more than others. Those are supertasters. Your

stomach can taste it too. And bitters have been used in medicine for centuries.

Oh, and gin and tonic started as a malarial treatment.

So really drinking one is just historical

appreciation. Finally, a note to my

all famous Brussels sprouts. Brussels sprouts were

crossbred, so the Brussels sprouts that you

taste today are unlike the brussels sprouts

I grew up with back in the 60s and

70s. Those Brussels sprouts were extremely bitter. The ones

today are far more sweet and more palatable.

Although I still have that sense of dread

whenever I see a Brussels sprout on my plate.

Anyway, if you love the food science without the flub,

subscribe to my substack on T.

Simpson.substack.com and do check out

the blog associated with

this@yourdoctorsorders.com

all right. Eating smarts always in

style. This podcast was researched and directed by

me, Dr. Terri Simpson. And uh, while I am a doctor, I am

not your doctor. This is for information and hopefully

some educational purposes. If you need a doctor, please see

a board certified western trained doctor. I don't see private

patients off my podcast. Please don't see a chiropractor or some

eastern guy trained in the dark arts. This pod

is distributed by my friends at Simpler Media. Shout out to

my good friend the pod God, Mr. Evotera.

Alright, have a sweet and maybe a bitter

week.

Hey Ivo, you know, in the old days when I enjoyed a Good

Man Patins, the bitters just had to be perfect.

Not too few, but there never

seemed to be too many. And I recall

you teaching me a little bit about bitters in

beers. Uh, that was a few years ago, my

friend. I think we've

gotten old.

>> Speaker B: Well, that's the damn truth. Although I

wonder, do the hops in beer. The

bittering agent.

>> Dr. Terry Simpson: Hmm. Hm.

>> Speaker B: Somehow slow down the aging process.

More research needed, clearly. Cheers.