When you have a sweet tooth, weight loss and better wellness can be really tricky to manage. However, scientists have turned a wild berry native to West Africa, which is used there to sweeten palm wine, into a dissolving tablet, and this may hold the answer you’ve been looking for.
The reason this ‘miracle berry’ plant could improve your weight is that it contains a naturally-occurring protein that temporarily inhibits sour flavours from reaching your taste buds, whilst also sweetening spicy, salty and bitter foods. According to Homaro Cantu, a Chicago-based chef who re-discovered the berries properties, this could aid the wellbeing of millions of people, as the organic, non-genetically modified plant could help in eliminating sugar and sweeteners from your diet altogether, and reduce occurrences of diabetes. This is why he has taken his findings to create hundreds of recipes that use the berries instead of sugar or other sweeteners.
Cantu explained, ‘It tricks your tongue into thinking something that’s sour, is sweet’. This means that the miraculin protein in the berry can make you think eating cheesecake when all you have is non-fat plain Greek Yogurt. When you eat the fleshy part of the berry, at a neutral pH the protein binds your taste bud’s sweet receptors, but when you eat sour foods and there’s a low pH, the miraculin actually activates the sweet receptors, which makes you think you’re eating something sweet.
Cantu is known for his scientific gastronomical experiences like printing edible sushi, and he says he re-discovered the berry six years ago while working with a cancer patient who’s course of chemotherapy caused her to lose her sense of taste. The FDA classifies the berry as a food additive, and it is supposed to be able to counteract the metallic taste in the mouth that is one of the many side effects of chemotherapy.
The berries themselves have a short shelf-life and are fairly expensive, and so Cantu has developed The Miracle Berry Diet Cookbook, which contains recipes designed to interact with a natural miracle berry tablet. The tablet dissolves on your tongue and takes three minutes for your taste bud receptacles to react. This means that limes start to taste like oranges, for example, so Cantu has a recipe for Orange Waffles, made with lime juice instead of oranges. Spices, like hot sauce of hot pepper, are toned down and even take on a sweeter flavour, so Cantu has created Teriyaki chicken with no added sugar, or honey. The effects of the berry lasts 30 to 40 minutes, and is available in a pill, powder or plant form, and is sold by the brand mberry on its website.