A range of vegetables and fruits have become sweeter in recent years
But many scientists believe that taking out the bitter compounds – known as phytochemicals – will harm us, and make food less nutritious
Our fruit and vegetables are getting sweeter – but at a cost to our health, scientists say.
Making our greens less bitter may help in the battle to get children to eat them.
But becoming sweeter comes at the expense of health benefits it is claimed.
A range of vegetables and fruits have become sweeter in recent years.
Bittersweet: Our fruit and vegetables are getting sweeter – but at a cost to our health, scientists claim
For example, in research cited in Florida 30 years ago, white grapefruit were much more popular than sweeter red and pink grapefruits – with growers shipping 27 million boxes of white grapefruit compared to 23 million pink.
Now coloured grapefruit are twice as popular as white varieties, according to research in New Scientist.
But white grapefruit contain 50 per cent more bitter-tasting compounds, linked to improving the cardiovascular system, than the red and pink grapefruit.
Brussel sprouts have become sweeter as well, with many varieties labelled as ‘kid friendly’ – as they are sweeter than older types.
Children have sweeter tooths than adults. Peter van der Toorn, who leads the vegetable breeding division of Syngenta in the Netherlands told New Scientist.
‘We still have bitter sprouts on the market, but the majority of what’s introduced these days is milder.’
Sweetener: Making fruit and veg less bitter may help more children to eat them. But becoming sweeter ‘comes at the expense of health benefits’
Humans have evolved to be wary of bitter foods – associating the taste with poisons.
Often in fruit and veg the bitter compounds are natural toxins that are designed to deter pests.
Adam Drewnowski, an epidemilogist at the University of Washington in Seattle explained why phytonutrients are good for health.
‘The reason bitter phytonutrients are cancer preventing is that they can destroy cells. They are healthy because they are toxic.’
But many scientists believe that taking out the bitter compounds – known as phytochemicals – will harm us.
Jed Fahey, a molecular scientist at Johns Hopkins University told the magazine: ‘Eating fruits and vegetables without phytochemicals would in many ways be analagous to drinking the empty calories of a can of soda.
‘Yes you could survive on de-bittered fruits and vegetables, and they would help maintain life, but not good health.’
Thousands of phytonutrients have been discovered. In grapefruit an ultra-bitter compound, naringin has been found to have anti-ulcer and anti-inflammatory properties.
Quercetin, a bitter chemical found in green tea , broccoli and red wine can help protect against lung cancer.
Other surveys have found phytonutrients such as sinigrin – found in Brussel sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage and kale has anti-cancer properties.
Other bitter compounds include solanine in potatoes and tomatine in tomatoes.Wild tomatoes have 166 times more tomatine than modern tomatoes.
Vegetables can vary enormously in how much of the beneficial bitter tasting chemicals they contain.
The Savannah Sweet variety contains over 500 times more quercetin than the white Contessa variety.
Source: Daily Mail
