----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2007 7:46
PM
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] 'miraclefruit'
One winter down in Florida I went to see a SSE
member who had lots of interesting fruit trees. As we were leaving
he said, "It's going to frost tonight anyway, so would you like some of my
miracle fruit?'' Well, I'd read about it along with the story of the FDA
routing the danger to our national sugar industry (hey, I'm just trying to fit
into the tone of recent posts! Anyway, the articles back then didn't
mention the govt regulator's motives, which I am sure simply involve
being control freaks who positively enjoy saying no and ruining other people's
lives, who've gotten jobs they have a real talent for.) He was pointing
to some boring looking shrubs under the eaves by the front
door that held small squishy red berries. We picked
all that were ripe, laying them in the lid of a box where they left red smears
on the cardboard. We went to my brother's house where we all smeared
them on our tongues and sat around sampling lemons and calamondins and
grapefruit and vinegar. It was incredible.
If you want to get a very
similar but very brief experience of the effect, get out some sour things
to sample and then dissolve a zinc gluconate tablet on your tongue. It's
not a very nice experience, but it will be worth it. Don't be in a
rush to get it over with, the more zinc that bonds to your taste buds, the
better it will work. Then start tasting your sour stuff. The
effect only lasts about 10 minutes. Keep some of your samples to taste
again after the zinc has worn off. Having discovered this by accident, I
have wondered if the miracle fruit and the zinc are doing something
similar. There was a study that showed that people with normal zinc
levels could increase their ability to taste sweetness by 20 fold by
supplementing zinc. When someone complains of food losing it's
taste, I always suspect zinc deficiency. And It has been reported that anorexics are invariably short of
zinc. Maybe somehow the taste buds are able to absorb the zinc
directly, or maybe the actual receptors, being on the surface, are able to
pick it up. I don't know if this will work with other forms of
zinc. Donna
P.S. Well, after writing all this, I looked
at what Dr. Parmer had to say. It appears the effect may be more
complicated than I had thought. Is the sour taste being converted to a
sweet taste, or merely being knocked out? Seeing as vinegar also tasted
sweet, and it's sugar content is pretty low (not zero though) I think that
sour tastes are being perceived as sweet. An apple, not being very sour,
would be boring compared to a lemon while under the influence. Actually,
this would be very smple to test, just stir some crystals of citric, malic, or
tartaric acid into some water, no sugar. Bassem, have you
still got a berry or two left to answer this question?
I was very interested in
hearing about these other two plants that can change the perception of
flavor. Our tastes also change according to our needs. I once
offered a solution of 1/8 tsp malic acid in 8 oz water to
a woman with fibromyalgia, who thought it was sweet and offered some to
her husband who was horrified at how sour it was. Malic or citric acid
seem to both help FMS people who like the taste. Would probably be
bad for those who dislike it. Is it possible that some
of our taste buds can be literally be changed to join the
opposition, and that these external methods are merely an indication that
the body can do the same? (Rather as the study of psychoactive
drugs has led to the discovery of the naturally occurring analogs in
our bodies.)
I spent years taking
niacinamide (B3) to control inflammation before I figured out I was gluten
intolerant. To this very day I use it to both check for and control
any kind of inflammatory problem. I chew up a 500 mg tablet.
If it tastes horribly bitter, I know it won't help, that my ache is not from
inflammation. If it tastes ok and leaves a sweet taste in my mouth, I
know that what I have is inflammation and will respond to B3. We learned
about smelling and tasting supplements, electrolytes, and the notion
that our body knows what it needs from Dr. Lendon Smiths' book FEED YOUR BODY
RIGHT. It has been invaluable.
This brings me to an
interesting observation. Citrus fruit tastes fantastic to me in Florida
in the heat. Brought back to Tennessee in the winter, the same
fruit is not appealing. I remember Jon Mattson ND said that he
wondered why health nuts often seemed to be in poor health, then he found out
that your body makes "super duper" vitamin D only when the potassium
level of your diet drops low enough. For people up north who need to
convert their dwindling D levels to the super active form, eating potassium
rich tropical fruits will predispose them to low calcium levels.
Low calcium means poor joint strength and increased allergic
reactions. His observation has sure made me stop and
wonder many a time when I was opening a jar of canned or dried summer fruit in
January. But then, there is something called "The Marshall
Protocol" for certain chronic diseases like sarcoidosis and lupus that
I'm sure you don't want to know about unless you know someone who has
one. It has to do with vitamin D conversions.
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