Taste: Bitterness

1. Scientists have long assumed that bitter “taste” evolved as a way to detect potentially harmful toxins in plants.
2. 25 genes are responsible for bitter, 3 for sweet
3. Expressed in small subset of all taste papillae
4. This helps explain why we taste bitterness with such intensity and find it throughout nature.
5. The most bitter substance know is called Denatonium (Bitrex) which is related to Lidocaine.As little as 10 ppm are unbearably bitter to most.
6. Evolution has developed our tastes but human knowledge has refined and selected what we eat
7. We have pre-selected most of our food based on knowledge passed down from generations before
8. Many of the bitter receptors are no longer really necessary for the modern human
9. All bitter components taste the same, it is like an on / off switch. It is bitter or it is not.