The Missing Flavour

Food means differnt to everyone and it takes various shapes and flavours in different regions of the world. But scientifically it comes down to the tongue and its sensory region. We can taste Five main tastes Sweet, Salt, Sour, Bitter and Umami. Our traditional regional cuisines incorporated cleverly all tastes in a meal, thereby ensuring a balance in different nutrients.

Fast forward to the present, there is imbalance in our palate. By adopting the fast food culture we have overloaded on the sweet and salty flavours big time. This has led to an abberation in our body constitutions. We have almost forgotten the bitter taste.

The Missing Flavour :

In Ayurveda, the bitter taste is called Tikta Rasa. Bitters are the missing taste in the modern diet, but they are the most common taste in nature. Our ancestors subsisted on diets high in bitters for millennia. Naturally, in a bitter environment, sweet taste was rare and highly desirable. So inherently we have a strong attraction towards sweet taste. Over exposure to the sweet taste has created Insulin Resistance psunami across the world.

When living in Arunachal Pradesh, I used to witness a high consumption of local bitter leaves daily. Probably that was the secret behind their longevity and great health. Traditional south east asian cuisine also uses a lot of bitter vegetables and greens. In India across different regions, the bitter taste is widely spread across with the use of bitter gourd(karela), Lemon and Citron rind pickles and greens like spinach, fenugreek(methi),mustard,amaranth etc.

Benefits Of Bitter Foods:

Nutritional Powerhouse:

Bitter greens are packed with vitamins A, C and K, and minerals like calcium, potassium and magnesium. Filled with folate and fiber these greens are a nutritional powerhouse. They promote great skin (beta-carotene), a strong nervous system (folate), healthy blood clotting (vitamin K) and contain phytonutrients shown to support eye health.

Digestion and Liver Cleanse:

Eating bitter food activates taste buds that simultaneously stimulate enzyme production and bile flow, which promotes digestion. Bitters stimulate peristalsis, the release of bile in the liver and gall bladder, clearing the blood of heat and Pitta. Hence bitter foods help in fat digestion and burning.

Balance of Taste and Cravings:

Ayurveda recommends we consume all tastes for better health: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, pungent, and astringent. Bitter resets the taste buds and destroys food cravings.

Common Bitter Foods:

Bitter gourd, Methi leaves and seeds, Dill leaves(Know About – Dill), Mustard leaves, Amaranth leaves, Rinds of lemon and citron, Cocoa, Water cress, Curry leaves, Broccoli, Spices like coriander,turmeric, cloves etc all provide nutrients.

Conclusion:

Bringing back the time tested flavours and tastes of our ancestral cooking is the best route to take. It would be foolish not to incorporate these amazing bitter foods.