January 5, 2022 • 28 mins
The miracle berry is a fruit that can make sour foods taste incredibly sweet. In this classic episode, Anney and Lauren explore the science behind flavor tripping, plus the strange, conspiracy-ridden history of the miracle berry's legality in the United States.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome to Sabor Prediction of iHeartRadio. I'm Annie
Reese and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today we have a
classic episode for you about the miracle berry. The miracle berry.
It is a very interesting one. Yeah. Yeah, there's intrigue.
There's miracle berry intrigue, um, which is which is high
(00:28):
key Why I picked this one because you know, it's
like it's January, and I was looking at episodes we've
done about um fad diets. We did too, We did
a two parter. It was a lot of material because,
as it turns out, fad diets are not new UM
but an artificial sweeteners. But then I don't know, like
I just really love the story of the miracle berry. Yes.
(00:52):
And it's interesting because when you were listening out something
that we could do and you mentioned this one, I
had been thinking about this late because yes, because I
ended up going and trying like berry whole, like a
whole tasting. Yes. And it was at a place that
was kind of, I mean, for me far away, but
(01:14):
is a twenty minute drive heaven forbid ething in Atlanta.
That's why I don't drive anywhere, Lauren. Yes, And I
was the only one who showed up. But they did
this class and it was just me and the bartender
and I just it was so fun and it was
so weird. It was so weird. I think the the
(01:36):
hot sauce. There was the hot sauce I did with
like a shot of something and it tasted like cheesecake.
And I don't know how why, but it did. Your
senses you're doubting everything you're seeing and you're tasting, but
it was it really did changed to the taste of things.
(01:56):
That's that's awesome. I still have not I still have
not tried this. Um. I have tabs up right now
looking to get some Miracle Berry content into my home
because because I need to. I'm like, what else am
I doing? Right? It's the New Year. It's our first
recording of the New year, well mine at least, so
I think, Lauren, you need to get some wild and
(02:19):
wacky adventures. Yeah, and and happy New Year y'all hap, yes, yes,
Happy New Year, they see to everybody who sent in
happy New Year messages, Yes, lovely uh huh. Hope that
all of your all of your holidays were wonderful and
that um the coffee is working this week. My New
(02:42):
Year's wish for you. I hope your coffee is working
this week. This is the way. If there's something there, Lauren,
I can, I can hear it's going to become a
trending phrase. I think so. Yeah. Without much further ado, uh,
(03:02):
We're gonna let former Annie and Lauren from from November
of ten take it away. Hello, and welcome to food Stuff.
(03:24):
I'm Lauren Vogelba and I'm Annie Reese. And hey Annie, Yeah,
do you want to go on a trip? What kind
of trip? A flavor trip? Yes, I so want to
go on a flavor trip. Aren't those all the trips
you go on? Actually pretty much? Yeah, but no, today
we're talking specifically about the kind of flavor tripping you
(03:44):
do with the miracle berry. That is such a strange
sentence if you don't know what flavor tripping is or
miracle berries. Yeah, I must think that's like a drug.
That I've had some really interesting coffee this morning. That Yeah, no, no, no, no,
it's it's it's a real thing. It's all so called
other miracle fruit or the sweet berry or the miraculous berry,
(04:05):
lots of names this one. Yeah, that is not its
scientific name, though, No, the scientific name for the miracle
berry is since a Pollum del civic um. It does
have a few others, though, the other most common being
a Cadella del citica. It primarily grows in West Africa.
That's where it originates from. Ye thank, yes, correct. It's
actually a shrub of the averages around two to five
(04:27):
ms around six and a half to sixteen feet. It's
usually on the shorter side of that range when you're
growing it, though, when you're actually cultivating it outside of
West Africa. Um. It's frost intolerant marvelous conversation plant, according
to the California Rare Fruit Growers Inc. I looked up
conversation plant after that, thinking maybe it was like a
(04:49):
pipe of plant. No, No, it's just it's just a
thing that you're like, oh, hey, Richard, have you noticed
my plant. It's a whole conversation starter the conversation started playing.
I thought it was like a type of play. I
was looking on, like what our conversation plants. I don't
grow too many things, you guys. Um. It needs acidic
(05:13):
soil to grow. The leaves cluster on the tips of
the branches, and during summer at flowers producing round things
that have first resemble green olives but gradually turned red,
kind of like a cranberry shade of red. That's the
very part. Those things get to be two to three
centimeters in size, and they have a single seed inside.
Low sugar content, but they do have a touch of
(05:34):
sweetness to them. Otherwise they're fairly flavorless. What about that
miracle part though, Yeah, how do they get that miracle
berry name? Well, they have this glycoprotein that researchers have
dubbed miraculine r MCL. Never let anyone tell you that
scientists don't have a sense of humor. No, never. Miraculouin
(05:55):
when eaten makes some sour things taste sweet. Let that
sink in for a minute, so you eat it, eat
something sour, it tastes sweet. Yeah, very cool. Referencing the
California rare fruit growers again, their article claimed that the
a miracle berry coat will now allow one to eat
a slice of lemon or lime without wincing. I just
(06:16):
love that, Like that's what they went with that description.
The effect last for about thirty minutes to an hour,
or until your saliva washes it out. In the nineteen
issue fifty one edition of the U. S d A's
Inventory of Seeds and Plants Imported Sounds riveting um it
(06:36):
listed since a pollum do civic um with this description.
When eaten, the pulp has the peculiar property of making
the most sour and acidulous sidulusous perfect word substances seem
intensely sweet, so that the citric are tartaric acids, lime, juice, vinegar,
(06:57):
and all sour immature fruits eaten or after, tastes as
if they were composed entirely of saccharin matter. The author
went on to note that preserved berries did not maintain
this property, and they didn't have much taste either, and
this has resulted in flavored tripping parties where people papa
berry making sure first not teat the seed, and to
(07:20):
hold the pulp around the mouth kind of swirl it
around for about a minute. Or you can just pop
a pill with miraculous next shacked and then try all
kinds of sour stuff like lemons, cheese, pickles, hot sauce, mustard, guinness,
Brussels sprouts, vinegars, and bottom shelf tequila, and for takers say,
the lemon tastes like candy, guinness plus orbe to taste
(07:41):
like a milkshake, hot sauce like donut glaze, go cheese
like cheesecake, Tequila like good tequila. Um, and Laura and
I will probably have done this by the time this
episode publishes. Well, we haven't, we had. Neither of us
have yet though, But we are planning. We are making plans. Yes, well,
and he's making plans and I'm really excited about that, Florida. Yeah,
(08:01):
go along with my plans. Foods that aren't sour don't
generally experience a shift and taste, apart from things that
are already sweet, which can become sickeningly so um. Heat
destroys the protein temperature wise, not spicifise, so foods need
to be room temperature or colder. This also means it
can't be cooked with, which limits its potential as a
(08:23):
replacement for artificial sweeteners currently. And what's happening here scientifically
is that miraculine. That that glycoprotein that we mentioned a
minute ago. Okay, okay, let's actually back up. Let's back
up further them that glycoprotein. A glycoprotein is a type
of protein molecule that also has a sugar molecule attached,
and those sugars allow glycoproteins to interact with different compounds
(08:46):
in ways that proteins usually can't, and it's super useful
biology wise. So miraculin is one of those protein plus
sugar combo molecules. And before we can proceed, we also
need to know how taste works, and we're learning right
at the top of those I know, So, so okay.
The taste buds on your tongue are actually bundles of
(09:06):
nerve cells called taste receptor cells. When particular types of
chemicals bind to those receptor cells, they send a signal
that ultimately gets transferred to your brain, and depending on
the type and number of signals that your brain receives
from these cells, it interprets those signals as flavors salty, sour,
better savory or sweet, or you know, some combination. The
(09:29):
cells have lots of receptor kind of areas that can
be highly specialized and are especially in the case of
sweet flavors. Um Although although we get all sweet flavor
experiences from the same type of taste receptor cell, different
parts of those cells bind to different kinds of sweet
tasting molecules, so so the same cell signals the presence
(09:52):
of everything from like carb based sweet things like a
glucose to salt based sweet things like saccharine. Sup a weird.
Those cells are just working hard for their money. I
love it, okay, But back back to miraculin. When you
get some on your tongue, the miraculine uh this, this
glico protein latches onto a particular part of your sweetness
(10:13):
receptor cells. Alone, the miraculan doesn't really do much of anything.
It produces like a mildly sweet flavor experience. But when
you add an acid into the mix, thus changing the
pH level of the environment, who am, The miraculan sets
off those receptor cells like crazy. Your brain gets this
(10:35):
rush of signals and you experience a very sweet taste.
And this feels so odd because acidic things generally taste
soury to us. Right Interestingly, araculan actually suppresses the action
of these receptors to other sweet tasting molecules at a
neutral pH level, meaning that if you eat a sweet
but non acidic food while you're flavor tripping, you you
(10:58):
won't taste the sweetness as much as you normally would.
But miraculin enhances the receptor's response to sweet tasting molecules
at just slightly acidic page levels, meaning that if you
eat something sort of sweet and sour while flavor tripping,
it'll taste so sweet uber sweet, which explains some of
the responses that people get to different foods. The theory
(11:19):
here um is that the pH level changes the way
the miraculine interacts with your tongues nerve cells by like
physically changing the chemical physical structure. That's so cool, I mean,
it's fascinating. So flavor tripping, which I still can't get
over or using that term, and the miracle berry in
(11:41):
general are really popular in Japan, where entire cafes are
dedicated to it. You can go in and find low
calorie miraculous desserts on menus are like just buy a
sour plum and the berry. Yeah. Yeah. And there's even
research behind genetically engineered miraculine laced lettuce coming out of Japan.
So far, they've been able to extect forty micrograms per
(12:02):
gram of lettuce, which is actually quite a bit because
it's so potent. Right. Yeah, They've been trying to come
up with a way to produce the miraculum more efficiently
than miracle fruit do, which is a common thing in
genetic research to to try to turn bacteria, yeast, algae
or even larger plants into kind of production factories for
compounds that are difficult to derive otherwise. You, uh, what
(12:24):
you do is you link a production gene from the
original organism, in this case the miracle berry, into the
make stuff genes of the host organism um and apparently
in this case lettuce works. Uh. All this research wasn't
just to make super exciting salads that would be cool, yes,
because they have also done it with tomatoes, I believe
(12:45):
ye oh oh man, Yeah, so tomatoes lettuce, you got
some ingredients for a salad like a lemon vinigarette on
top of that, I bet what taste bizarre and amazing? Yeah,
okay on that science. Okay, but yeah, not just the
salad thing, No, No, there's many things. It's been used
for sweetening and as a dietary supplement or to depress
(13:07):
your appetite, with some thinking it could even help with
obesity or world hunger. More on those things later. As
of right now, this flavor tripping berry does not come
cheap a single berry can run you two bucks, and
this is because the plant is a little to inmpremental.
It can't survive a temperatures below forty seven degrees faheit
or seven degrees celsius. The taste switching property goes away
(13:30):
after two to three hours at room temperature, and the
plant takes a couple of years to bear fruit, and
when it does, it doesn't bear much. Yeah that the
berries go bad just super quickly. Um freeze drying them
is one expensive but workable solution to shipping them. You
can't find them, however, either, as frozen granules online are
fresh grown if you happen to live where they grow
Florida and Puerto Rico in the US, Taiwan, Jamaica, Ghana,
(13:53):
and Guam, for instance. Researchers are looking at cost effective
ways to produce larger amounts of pure miraculous, both for
commercial reasons and scientific pursuits, with some preliminary success, including
that lettuce thing. And you can also get tablets that
contain powdered miracle fruit for like a buck fifty per
m HM. Miraculum and the miracle berry are not the
only substances and plants that do this. By the way,
(14:16):
Thomadococcus dan yellow and Jiminema sylvestra probably messed that up,
but okay, both of which share the same miracle berry
property thing. Yeah, they're they're active ingredients, so to speak.
Fomatin and germarin, respectively, work a little bit differently though.
Um there's also curriculine and neoculan from the fruit of
(14:40):
the curculigo latinfolia plant. Yes, so much Latin. Our research
is being done into all of these things too, but
the miracle berry is a little bit more widespread. So yeah,
that was the the intro. Well, let's talk about the history,
including intrigue. Yes, so much intrigue. Okay, alright, but first
(15:04):
let's take a quick break for what from our sponsor
and we're back, Thank you sponsor. The miracle fruit and
or berry, whatever you would like to call it might
be relatively new to us, but West Africans, where it's
(15:26):
native to have known about it for a while for
centuries before the first known written mention of them. These
berries were used to enhance the taste of things like
sour beer or wine or stale maze, bread, cornbread, porridge,
and sour fruits The first written mentioned comes to us
courtesy of the seventeen journals of the French explorer Chevalier
de Marche, who was on a bit of an African
(15:48):
fruit scavenger hunt, and he observed the native population eating
these berries before meals and grew curious. I would too,
he wrote, chewed without being swallowed it was. It has
the property of sweetening at which one can put afterwards
in the mouth, which is our or bitter m hmmm.
Jumping ahead to two, a European botanist by the name
(16:09):
of W. F. Daniel became the first to study it scientifically,
mostly looking at its potential as a sweetener. He called
it the miraculous berry. Skipping ahead again to night. Two
groups of scientists isolated miraculous, and it didn't take long
for BioMed postgrad Robert Harvey, who had encountered the berry previously,
(16:29):
to found a company called Maryland to try and make
a product out of the stuff as a sugar substitute,
particularly for diabetics. In the seventies. His plan was to
grow the bary in Jamaican and Puerto Rico, extract the
miraculum in Massachusetts, and sell the product across the US.
But guess who wasn't having it. Oh, the f d A.
(16:50):
The f d A, the f d A. That's right.
When Harvey first approached the f d A and went
to lawyers for legal advice, he was told as product
would most likely receive the gasification of generally recognized as safe.
Studies for the Army and conducted by Dr Linda bart
Shook in the nineteen sixties found no ill side effects
as a results of consuming the fruit, and a one
(17:12):
hundred thousand dollar toxicology study found that rats of siting
off miraculum were healthier than those living off of pet food,
and even at rates of three thousand times what a
normal human would eat, no negative side effects were discovered.
Sounds pretty good, it does, doesn't it. However, Harvey's sweet
dreams were soured. Credit to the BBC for that one.
(17:33):
I didn't come up with that right before his product
was scheduled to launch in nineteen seventy four, when the
FDA seemingly changed their tune and classified Miraculous as an additive,
which meant it had to go through years of more
rigorous tests before it could be sold in the American market.
Harvey was stunned at what he accounts says in Out
of the Blue about face, and the company lost its
(17:55):
financial backing back and backening, backing backening. It's because all
of our movies I've been watching lately anyway. So what
went down here, Well, after doing some taste test earlier
in the year where kids were asked which they preferred
a miracle berry sweetened ice pop are one sweetened with sugar,
(18:18):
and the kids chose the miracle berry one every single time.
Harvey's company, Maryland, had gotten some big investors like Prudential
and Barclays, and they were expecting some big returns and
they pumped like tens of millions of dollars into this venture. Yeah,
they were projecting like a multibillion dollar company displacing sugar
and artificial sweeteners, which means we get to talk about
(18:41):
big sugar again, Big sugar sugar que suspenseful conspiracy soundtrack.
So so, according to Harvey and the then vice president
of Maryland, Don Emory, a few weeks after these taste tests,
these very sick cessful taste test, a car was seen
(19:02):
slowing down outside their offices then driving back and forth. Yes,
and occupant of this vehicle took pictures of the building.
Harvey claims he was followed as he drove home one night,
only able to lose the tail when he pulled onto
a dirt access road and turned off his lights. The
cards seemed passed at a high speed. Weeks later, Maryland's
offices were broken into. The burglars were interrupted when Harvey
(19:28):
and Emory returned to the office from dinner, but they
escaped were never caught. Yeah, and on the floor was
an opened FDA file. Then presto changeo, the FDA changes
its position. Coincidence or conspiracy. Yes, here's Emory's take on it.
(19:49):
I honestly believe that we were done in by some
industrial interests that did not want to see us survive
because we were a threat. Somebody influenced somebody in the
FDA to cause the regulatory action that was taking against us.
A Big Sugar, Big Sugar a K. The Sugar Association,
(20:09):
Artificial Sweetener representing the Calorie Controlled Council, and the FDA
have declined comment um. This was at the time of
the BBC article, which was two thousand eight. Harvey requested
the FDA files through the Freedom of Information Act and
described them as the most rodacted information I've ever seen
from f O I. Everything was blacked out. And here's
(20:32):
where things get even crazier. Yes, the year that the
FDA basically turned turned them down is the same year
that sugar substitute aspartame was partially approved by the FDA
and something of a conspiracy shrouded process itself. This powerful
company called Searle had been developing aspartame and was trying
(20:54):
to push it through despite some kind of questionable study findings.
Those and other finding would partially tie aspertame up all
the way until when Donald rum Spelled, the CEO of Searle,
was appointed to new President Ronald Reagan's transition team, which
picked a new FDA commissioner who basically only lasted as
(21:14):
long as it took to get Aspartame approved. Oh man,
whole future episode, like maybe with the stuff they don't
want you to know, guys, I think they've done one.
But yeah, we should bring them in for a little
panel discussion. Yeah, okay, and anyway, miraculous Miraculum. The FDA
(21:36):
ruling still stands to this day. Um When the Atlantic
contacted the FDA about Miraculus in the response was in
nineteen seventy seven. The agency concluded that information submitted regarding
miraculous did not support either a generally Recognized Safe or
g r A S affirmation or the issuance of a
food additive regulation. The f d A has not received
(21:59):
for their information on the safety of the use of
this substance in food under either the g r A
S program are a food additive petition. However, the berry
itself and extract pills being under the purview of the
U s d A the United States Department of Agriculture,
not the f d A, are totally legal or rather unregulated.
(22:22):
You just can't add miraculum to food, not if you're
going to sell it in the United States, right, And
that brings us to today where their pockets around the
world enjoying the miracle berry and the flavor tripping parties.
But it's still relatively i would say, rare consumer wise
and the subject of much study science wise, and speaking of,
(22:44):
let's talk about some science and health claims. After one
last break for a word from our sponsor and went back,
Thank you, sponsor, thank you. Okay. So, perhaps one of
(23:05):
the most buzzed about possible uses of miracle berry is
as a replacement for sugar and therefore a weight loss
or diet product. Taking into account that is projected that
of the American population will be obesed by and that
translates to an extra sixty billion dollars placed on the
US healthcare system. Kind of a big problem. Our sweet
(23:27):
tooth has a lot to do with rising obc rates.
Um see our sugar episode for more info on that.
If you haven't already so, a lower calorie, healthier replacement
could be a valuable tool to reverse this trend. It'd
be a different approach than denying cravings, would be sort
of like hijacking them, like we want pie, Let's eat
this goat cheese. Make ourselves think think it's pie. Right. Yeah,
(23:51):
but there are problems. Of course, you can't heat it
for starters, you can't refrigerate it. Chicago coffee shop owner
Homorrow Kantu has been experimenting with creating a stable miraculous
extract in cooking with it. As previously mentioned, it's costly
and while they're having studies on it and health benefits,
there's always room for more. Yeah. Despite being called the
(24:12):
miracle berry, there are no miracle foods. Yes, big, big
disclaimer absolutely, although, like yeah, like if you could say,
bake like donuts with considerably less sugar and just pop
a miracle berry before you eat it to make it
taste as sweet as the real thing, that's that's pretty valuable. Yeah,
And that's what the chef gone to. That's he wants
(24:34):
to make a donut. That's his goal. Yea. Um. As
hinted at earlier, miracle berry has been proposed and studied
as a way to delay insulin resistance and improve insulin
sensitivity for people with diabetes. The science in that is
super complicated and so far the research has only been
done in mice, but it is promising. Miracle berry has
(24:55):
also been used to improve the appetites of cancer patients
undergrowing chemo yeah, who frequently experienced them a much reduced
sense of taste or a metallic taste in their mouth,
which can lead to weight loss from nutrition because you
never want to eat. By masking the bad taste or
restoring good taste, miracle berry can help patients avoid that. However,
(25:15):
this is an area where definitely more research needs to
be done. The fruit contains compounds that act as any occidants,
which might interfere with the productivity of chemotherapy to begin with,
it's hard to make a firm recommendation about it either
way without more information. If you happen to be interested
in this as a therapy, talk to your doctor. Yes,
(25:35):
and as we always say, well one, we're not doctors,
but to everybody's body is different. So yeah, very hard
to make any sort of general health recommendations. Yes, the
pulp isn't the only thing attracting scientific interest. Researchers are
also looking to the health and IF's of the skin,
and has mentioned earlier, the miracle berry has been proposed
(25:56):
by some as a way to combat world hunger by
way of making foods people normally wouldn't eat more palatable,
which maybe I mean, I guess I can't hurt. I
don't know, I don't know. It's interesting, it's interesting. Yeah,
it's an interesting idea. If you've got the shoddy apple
and a miracle berry, then you know it's true. Yeah. Okay,
(26:17):
so that was our little flavored trip um into a
miracle berry. I hope you found it as interesting as
laur and I did. I mean that taste, but thing
is so cool? Oh yeah, and oh, I just can't
like big big Sugar like shadowy big big sugar, Sugar
is gonna just show up over and over. I have
I have a feeling it was the break in point
(26:39):
that I just like lost like all of my stuff,
Like I was just like, what what is going on
in I Like, is this like a script I'm accidentally reading?
You know this really happened allegedly allegedly? Yeah. Yeah, it
was very interesting, very interesting story, and that brings us
(27:04):
to the end of this classic episode. We hope you
enjoyed it. We hope you enjoyed the intrigue as much
as we did. Yes, yes, yes, yes, um and an
excellent name as well. Hopefully, Lauren, soon you will get
to go on an adventure, just as I did when
I got to try the miracle Berry. Yes, the only
(27:24):
kind of trip I'm taking. Still at home, everyone's still
here in our closets. Um, cats making noises in the background. Yeah,
of course. I think it adds texture. Absolutely everyone wanted
from their food podcast. Texture. That's what people love about food.
(27:45):
Some people do and here listeners. If you have ever
had a miracle berry experience, we would love to hear
about it. Yes, absolutely. You can email us at Hello
at saperpod dot com. We're also on social media. You
can find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at saver
pod and we do hope to hear from you. Savor
(28:07):
is production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts to
my heart Radio, you can visit the I Heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Thank you as always to our super producers Dylan Fagan
and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and we
hope that lots more good things are coming your way
Hello, and welcome to Sabor Prediction of iHeartRadio. I'm Annie
Reese and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today we have a
classic episode for you about the miracle berry. The miracle berry.
It is a very interesting one. Yeah. Yeah, there's intrigue.
There's miracle berry intrigue, um, which is which is high
(00:28):
key Why I picked this one because you know, it's
like it's January, and I was looking at episodes we've
done about um fad diets. We did too, We did
a two parter. It was a lot of material because,
as it turns out, fad diets are not new UM
but an artificial sweeteners. But then I don't know, like
I just really love the story of the miracle berry. Yes.
(00:52):
And it's interesting because when you were listening out something
that we could do and you mentioned this one, I
had been thinking about this late because yes, because I
ended up going and trying like berry whole, like a
whole tasting. Yes. And it was at a place that
was kind of, I mean, for me far away, but
(01:14):
is a twenty minute drive heaven forbid ething in Atlanta.
That's why I don't drive anywhere, Lauren. Yes, And I
was the only one who showed up. But they did
this class and it was just me and the bartender
and I just it was so fun and it was
so weird. It was so weird. I think the the
(01:36):
hot sauce. There was the hot sauce I did with
like a shot of something and it tasted like cheesecake.
And I don't know how why, but it did. Your
senses you're doubting everything you're seeing and you're tasting, but
it was it really did changed to the taste of things.
(01:56):
That's that's awesome. I still have not I still have
not tried this. Um. I have tabs up right now
looking to get some Miracle Berry content into my home
because because I need to. I'm like, what else am
I doing? Right? It's the New Year. It's our first
recording of the New year, well mine at least, so
I think, Lauren, you need to get some wild and
(02:19):
wacky adventures. Yeah, and and happy New Year y'all hap, yes, yes,
Happy New Year, they see to everybody who sent in
happy New Year messages, Yes, lovely uh huh. Hope that
all of your all of your holidays were wonderful and
that um the coffee is working this week. My New
(02:42):
Year's wish for you. I hope your coffee is working
this week. This is the way. If there's something there, Lauren,
I can, I can hear it's going to become a
trending phrase. I think so. Yeah. Without much further ado, uh,
(03:02):
We're gonna let former Annie and Lauren from from November
of ten take it away. Hello, and welcome to food Stuff.
(03:24):
I'm Lauren Vogelba and I'm Annie Reese. And hey Annie, Yeah,
do you want to go on a trip? What kind
of trip? A flavor trip? Yes, I so want to
go on a flavor trip. Aren't those all the trips
you go on? Actually pretty much? Yeah, but no, today
we're talking specifically about the kind of flavor tripping you
(03:44):
do with the miracle berry. That is such a strange
sentence if you don't know what flavor tripping is or
miracle berries. Yeah, I must think that's like a drug.
That I've had some really interesting coffee this morning. That Yeah, no, no, no, no,
it's it's it's a real thing. It's all so called
other miracle fruit or the sweet berry or the miraculous berry,
(04:05):
lots of names this one. Yeah, that is not its
scientific name, though, No, the scientific name for the miracle
berry is since a Pollum del civic um. It does
have a few others, though, the other most common being
a Cadella del citica. It primarily grows in West Africa.
That's where it originates from. Ye thank, yes, correct. It's
actually a shrub of the averages around two to five
(04:27):
ms around six and a half to sixteen feet. It's
usually on the shorter side of that range when you're
growing it, though, when you're actually cultivating it outside of
West Africa. Um. It's frost intolerant marvelous conversation plant, according
to the California Rare Fruit Growers Inc. I looked up
conversation plant after that, thinking maybe it was like a
(04:49):
pipe of plant. No, No, it's just it's just a
thing that you're like, oh, hey, Richard, have you noticed
my plant. It's a whole conversation starter the conversation started playing.
I thought it was like a type of play. I
was looking on, like what our conversation plants. I don't
grow too many things, you guys. Um. It needs acidic
(05:13):
soil to grow. The leaves cluster on the tips of
the branches, and during summer at flowers producing round things
that have first resemble green olives but gradually turned red,
kind of like a cranberry shade of red. That's the
very part. Those things get to be two to three
centimeters in size, and they have a single seed inside.
Low sugar content, but they do have a touch of
(05:34):
sweetness to them. Otherwise they're fairly flavorless. What about that
miracle part though, Yeah, how do they get that miracle
berry name? Well, they have this glycoprotein that researchers have
dubbed miraculine r MCL. Never let anyone tell you that
scientists don't have a sense of humor. No, never. Miraculouin
(05:55):
when eaten makes some sour things taste sweet. Let that
sink in for a minute, so you eat it, eat
something sour, it tastes sweet. Yeah, very cool. Referencing the
California rare fruit growers again, their article claimed that the
a miracle berry coat will now allow one to eat
a slice of lemon or lime without wincing. I just
(06:16):
love that, Like that's what they went with that description.
The effect last for about thirty minutes to an hour,
or until your saliva washes it out. In the nineteen
issue fifty one edition of the U. S d A's
Inventory of Seeds and Plants Imported Sounds riveting um it
(06:36):
listed since a pollum do civic um with this description.
When eaten, the pulp has the peculiar property of making
the most sour and acidulous sidulusous perfect word substances seem
intensely sweet, so that the citric are tartaric acids, lime, juice, vinegar,
(06:57):
and all sour immature fruits eaten or after, tastes as
if they were composed entirely of saccharin matter. The author
went on to note that preserved berries did not maintain
this property, and they didn't have much taste either, and
this has resulted in flavored tripping parties where people papa
berry making sure first not teat the seed, and to
(07:20):
hold the pulp around the mouth kind of swirl it
around for about a minute. Or you can just pop
a pill with miraculous next shacked and then try all
kinds of sour stuff like lemons, cheese, pickles, hot sauce, mustard, guinness,
Brussels sprouts, vinegars, and bottom shelf tequila, and for takers say,
the lemon tastes like candy, guinness plus orbe to taste
(07:41):
like a milkshake, hot sauce like donut glaze, go cheese
like cheesecake, Tequila like good tequila. Um, and Laura and
I will probably have done this by the time this
episode publishes. Well, we haven't, we had. Neither of us
have yet though, But we are planning. We are making plans. Yes, well,
and he's making plans and I'm really excited about that, Florida. Yeah,
(08:01):
go along with my plans. Foods that aren't sour don't
generally experience a shift and taste, apart from things that
are already sweet, which can become sickeningly so um. Heat
destroys the protein temperature wise, not spicifise, so foods need
to be room temperature or colder. This also means it
can't be cooked with, which limits its potential as a
(08:23):
replacement for artificial sweeteners currently. And what's happening here scientifically
is that miraculine. That that glycoprotein that we mentioned a
minute ago. Okay, okay, let's actually back up. Let's back
up further them that glycoprotein. A glycoprotein is a type
of protein molecule that also has a sugar molecule attached,
and those sugars allow glycoproteins to interact with different compounds
(08:46):
in ways that proteins usually can't, and it's super useful
biology wise. So miraculin is one of those protein plus
sugar combo molecules. And before we can proceed, we also
need to know how taste works, and we're learning right
at the top of those I know, So, so okay.
The taste buds on your tongue are actually bundles of
(09:06):
nerve cells called taste receptor cells. When particular types of
chemicals bind to those receptor cells, they send a signal
that ultimately gets transferred to your brain, and depending on
the type and number of signals that your brain receives
from these cells, it interprets those signals as flavors salty, sour,
better savory or sweet, or you know, some combination. The
(09:29):
cells have lots of receptor kind of areas that can
be highly specialized and are especially in the case of
sweet flavors. Um Although although we get all sweet flavor
experiences from the same type of taste receptor cell, different
parts of those cells bind to different kinds of sweet
tasting molecules, so so the same cell signals the presence
(09:52):
of everything from like carb based sweet things like a
glucose to salt based sweet things like saccharine. Sup a weird.
Those cells are just working hard for their money. I
love it, okay, But back back to miraculin. When you
get some on your tongue, the miraculine uh this, this
glico protein latches onto a particular part of your sweetness
(10:13):
receptor cells. Alone, the miraculan doesn't really do much of anything.
It produces like a mildly sweet flavor experience. But when
you add an acid into the mix, thus changing the
pH level of the environment, who am, The miraculan sets
off those receptor cells like crazy. Your brain gets this
(10:35):
rush of signals and you experience a very sweet taste.
And this feels so odd because acidic things generally taste
soury to us. Right Interestingly, araculan actually suppresses the action
of these receptors to other sweet tasting molecules at a
neutral pH level, meaning that if you eat a sweet
but non acidic food while you're flavor tripping, you you
(10:58):
won't taste the sweetness as much as you normally would.
But miraculin enhances the receptor's response to sweet tasting molecules
at just slightly acidic page levels, meaning that if you
eat something sort of sweet and sour while flavor tripping,
it'll taste so sweet uber sweet, which explains some of
the responses that people get to different foods. The theory
(11:19):
here um is that the pH level changes the way
the miraculine interacts with your tongues nerve cells by like
physically changing the chemical physical structure. That's so cool, I mean,
it's fascinating. So flavor tripping, which I still can't get
over or using that term, and the miracle berry in
(11:41):
general are really popular in Japan, where entire cafes are
dedicated to it. You can go in and find low
calorie miraculous desserts on menus are like just buy a
sour plum and the berry. Yeah. Yeah. And there's even
research behind genetically engineered miraculine laced lettuce coming out of Japan.
So far, they've been able to extect forty micrograms per
(12:02):
gram of lettuce, which is actually quite a bit because
it's so potent. Right. Yeah, They've been trying to come
up with a way to produce the miraculum more efficiently
than miracle fruit do, which is a common thing in
genetic research to to try to turn bacteria, yeast, algae
or even larger plants into kind of production factories for
compounds that are difficult to derive otherwise. You, uh, what
(12:24):
you do is you link a production gene from the
original organism, in this case the miracle berry, into the
make stuff genes of the host organism um and apparently
in this case lettuce works. Uh. All this research wasn't
just to make super exciting salads that would be cool, yes,
because they have also done it with tomatoes, I believe
(12:45):
ye oh oh man, Yeah, so tomatoes lettuce, you got
some ingredients for a salad like a lemon vinigarette on
top of that, I bet what taste bizarre and amazing? Yeah,
okay on that science. Okay, but yeah, not just the
salad thing, No, No, there's many things. It's been used
for sweetening and as a dietary supplement or to depress
(13:07):
your appetite, with some thinking it could even help with
obesity or world hunger. More on those things later. As
of right now, this flavor tripping berry does not come
cheap a single berry can run you two bucks, and
this is because the plant is a little to inmpremental.
It can't survive a temperatures below forty seven degrees faheit
or seven degrees celsius. The taste switching property goes away
(13:30):
after two to three hours at room temperature, and the
plant takes a couple of years to bear fruit, and
when it does, it doesn't bear much. Yeah that the
berries go bad just super quickly. Um freeze drying them
is one expensive but workable solution to shipping them. You
can't find them, however, either, as frozen granules online are
fresh grown if you happen to live where they grow
Florida and Puerto Rico in the US, Taiwan, Jamaica, Ghana,
(13:53):
and Guam, for instance. Researchers are looking at cost effective
ways to produce larger amounts of pure miraculous, both for
commercial reasons and scientific pursuits, with some preliminary success, including
that lettuce thing. And you can also get tablets that
contain powdered miracle fruit for like a buck fifty per
m HM. Miraculum and the miracle berry are not the
only substances and plants that do this. By the way,
(14:16):
Thomadococcus dan yellow and Jiminema sylvestra probably messed that up,
but okay, both of which share the same miracle berry
property thing. Yeah, they're they're active ingredients, so to speak.
Fomatin and germarin, respectively, work a little bit differently though.
Um there's also curriculine and neoculan from the fruit of
(14:40):
the curculigo latinfolia plant. Yes, so much Latin. Our research
is being done into all of these things too, but
the miracle berry is a little bit more widespread. So yeah,
that was the the intro. Well, let's talk about the history,
including intrigue. Yes, so much intrigue. Okay, alright, but first
(15:04):
let's take a quick break for what from our sponsor
and we're back, Thank you sponsor. The miracle fruit and
or berry, whatever you would like to call it might
be relatively new to us, but West Africans, where it's
(15:26):
native to have known about it for a while for
centuries before the first known written mention of them. These
berries were used to enhance the taste of things like
sour beer or wine or stale maze, bread, cornbread, porridge,
and sour fruits The first written mentioned comes to us
courtesy of the seventeen journals of the French explorer Chevalier
de Marche, who was on a bit of an African
(15:48):
fruit scavenger hunt, and he observed the native population eating
these berries before meals and grew curious. I would too,
he wrote, chewed without being swallowed it was. It has
the property of sweetening at which one can put afterwards
in the mouth, which is our or bitter m hmmm.
Jumping ahead to two, a European botanist by the name
(16:09):
of W. F. Daniel became the first to study it scientifically,
mostly looking at its potential as a sweetener. He called
it the miraculous berry. Skipping ahead again to night. Two
groups of scientists isolated miraculous, and it didn't take long
for BioMed postgrad Robert Harvey, who had encountered the berry previously,
(16:29):
to found a company called Maryland to try and make
a product out of the stuff as a sugar substitute,
particularly for diabetics. In the seventies. His plan was to
grow the bary in Jamaican and Puerto Rico, extract the
miraculum in Massachusetts, and sell the product across the US.
But guess who wasn't having it. Oh, the f d A.
(16:50):
The f d A, the f d A. That's right.
When Harvey first approached the f d A and went
to lawyers for legal advice, he was told as product
would most likely receive the gasification of generally recognized as safe.
Studies for the Army and conducted by Dr Linda bart
Shook in the nineteen sixties found no ill side effects
as a results of consuming the fruit, and a one
(17:12):
hundred thousand dollar toxicology study found that rats of siting
off miraculum were healthier than those living off of pet food,
and even at rates of three thousand times what a
normal human would eat, no negative side effects were discovered.
Sounds pretty good, it does, doesn't it. However, Harvey's sweet
dreams were soured. Credit to the BBC for that one.
(17:33):
I didn't come up with that right before his product
was scheduled to launch in nineteen seventy four, when the
FDA seemingly changed their tune and classified Miraculous as an additive,
which meant it had to go through years of more
rigorous tests before it could be sold in the American market.
Harvey was stunned at what he accounts says in Out
of the Blue about face, and the company lost its
(17:55):
financial backing back and backening, backing backening. It's because all
of our movies I've been watching lately anyway. So what
went down here, Well, after doing some taste test earlier
in the year where kids were asked which they preferred
a miracle berry sweetened ice pop are one sweetened with sugar,
(18:18):
and the kids chose the miracle berry one every single time.
Harvey's company, Maryland, had gotten some big investors like Prudential
and Barclays, and they were expecting some big returns and
they pumped like tens of millions of dollars into this venture. Yeah,
they were projecting like a multibillion dollar company displacing sugar
and artificial sweeteners, which means we get to talk about
(18:41):
big sugar again, Big sugar sugar que suspenseful conspiracy soundtrack.
So so, according to Harvey and the then vice president
of Maryland, Don Emory, a few weeks after these taste tests,
these very sick cessful taste test, a car was seen
(19:02):
slowing down outside their offices then driving back and forth. Yes,
and occupant of this vehicle took pictures of the building.
Harvey claims he was followed as he drove home one night,
only able to lose the tail when he pulled onto
a dirt access road and turned off his lights. The
cards seemed passed at a high speed. Weeks later, Maryland's
offices were broken into. The burglars were interrupted when Harvey
(19:28):
and Emory returned to the office from dinner, but they
escaped were never caught. Yeah, and on the floor was
an opened FDA file. Then presto changeo, the FDA changes
its position. Coincidence or conspiracy. Yes, here's Emory's take on it.
(19:49):
I honestly believe that we were done in by some
industrial interests that did not want to see us survive
because we were a threat. Somebody influenced somebody in the
FDA to cause the regulatory action that was taking against us.
A Big Sugar, Big Sugar a K. The Sugar Association,
(20:09):
Artificial Sweetener representing the Calorie Controlled Council, and the FDA
have declined comment um. This was at the time of
the BBC article, which was two thousand eight. Harvey requested
the FDA files through the Freedom of Information Act and
described them as the most rodacted information I've ever seen
from f O I. Everything was blacked out. And here's
(20:32):
where things get even crazier. Yes, the year that the
FDA basically turned turned them down is the same year
that sugar substitute aspartame was partially approved by the FDA
and something of a conspiracy shrouded process itself. This powerful
company called Searle had been developing aspartame and was trying
(20:54):
to push it through despite some kind of questionable study findings.
Those and other finding would partially tie aspertame up all
the way until when Donald rum Spelled, the CEO of Searle,
was appointed to new President Ronald Reagan's transition team, which
picked a new FDA commissioner who basically only lasted as
(21:14):
long as it took to get Aspartame approved. Oh man,
whole future episode, like maybe with the stuff they don't
want you to know, guys, I think they've done one.
But yeah, we should bring them in for a little
panel discussion. Yeah, okay, and anyway, miraculous Miraculum. The FDA
(21:36):
ruling still stands to this day. Um When the Atlantic
contacted the FDA about Miraculus in the response was in
nineteen seventy seven. The agency concluded that information submitted regarding
miraculous did not support either a generally Recognized Safe or
g r A S affirmation or the issuance of a
food additive regulation. The f d A has not received
(21:59):
for their information on the safety of the use of
this substance in food under either the g r A
S program are a food additive petition. However, the berry
itself and extract pills being under the purview of the
U s d A the United States Department of Agriculture,
not the f d A, are totally legal or rather unregulated.
(22:22):
You just can't add miraculum to food, not if you're
going to sell it in the United States, right, And
that brings us to today where their pockets around the
world enjoying the miracle berry and the flavor tripping parties.
But it's still relatively i would say, rare consumer wise
and the subject of much study science wise, and speaking of,
(22:44):
let's talk about some science and health claims. After one
last break for a word from our sponsor and went back,
Thank you, sponsor, thank you. Okay. So, perhaps one of
(23:05):
the most buzzed about possible uses of miracle berry is
as a replacement for sugar and therefore a weight loss
or diet product. Taking into account that is projected that
of the American population will be obesed by and that
translates to an extra sixty billion dollars placed on the
US healthcare system. Kind of a big problem. Our sweet
(23:27):
tooth has a lot to do with rising obc rates.
Um see our sugar episode for more info on that.
If you haven't already so, a lower calorie, healthier replacement
could be a valuable tool to reverse this trend. It'd
be a different approach than denying cravings, would be sort
of like hijacking them, like we want pie, Let's eat
this goat cheese. Make ourselves think think it's pie. Right. Yeah,
(23:51):
but there are problems. Of course, you can't heat it
for starters, you can't refrigerate it. Chicago coffee shop owner
Homorrow Kantu has been experimenting with creating a stable miraculous
extract in cooking with it. As previously mentioned, it's costly
and while they're having studies on it and health benefits,
there's always room for more. Yeah. Despite being called the
(24:12):
miracle berry, there are no miracle foods. Yes, big, big
disclaimer absolutely, although, like yeah, like if you could say,
bake like donuts with considerably less sugar and just pop
a miracle berry before you eat it to make it
taste as sweet as the real thing, that's that's pretty valuable. Yeah,
And that's what the chef gone to. That's he wants
(24:34):
to make a donut. That's his goal. Yea. Um. As
hinted at earlier, miracle berry has been proposed and studied
as a way to delay insulin resistance and improve insulin
sensitivity for people with diabetes. The science in that is
super complicated and so far the research has only been
done in mice, but it is promising. Miracle berry has
(24:55):
also been used to improve the appetites of cancer patients
undergrowing chemo yeah, who frequently experienced them a much reduced
sense of taste or a metallic taste in their mouth,
which can lead to weight loss from nutrition because you
never want to eat. By masking the bad taste or
restoring good taste, miracle berry can help patients avoid that. However,
(25:15):
this is an area where definitely more research needs to
be done. The fruit contains compounds that act as any occidants,
which might interfere with the productivity of chemotherapy to begin with,
it's hard to make a firm recommendation about it either
way without more information. If you happen to be interested
in this as a therapy, talk to your doctor. Yes,
(25:35):
and as we always say, well one, we're not doctors,
but to everybody's body is different. So yeah, very hard
to make any sort of general health recommendations. Yes, the
pulp isn't the only thing attracting scientific interest. Researchers are
also looking to the health and IF's of the skin,
and has mentioned earlier, the miracle berry has been proposed
(25:56):
by some as a way to combat world hunger by
way of making foods people normally wouldn't eat more palatable,
which maybe I mean, I guess I can't hurt. I
don't know, I don't know. It's interesting, it's interesting. Yeah,
it's an interesting idea. If you've got the shoddy apple
and a miracle berry, then you know it's true. Yeah. Okay,
(26:17):
so that was our little flavored trip um into a
miracle berry. I hope you found it as interesting as
laur and I did. I mean that taste, but thing
is so cool? Oh yeah, and oh, I just can't
like big big Sugar like shadowy big big sugar, Sugar
is gonna just show up over and over. I have
I have a feeling it was the break in point
(26:39):
that I just like lost like all of my stuff,
Like I was just like, what what is going on
in I Like, is this like a script I'm accidentally reading?
You know this really happened allegedly allegedly? Yeah. Yeah, it
was very interesting, very interesting story, and that brings us
(27:04):
to the end of this classic episode. We hope you
enjoyed it. We hope you enjoyed the intrigue as much
as we did. Yes, yes, yes, yes, um and an
excellent name as well. Hopefully, Lauren, soon you will get
to go on an adventure, just as I did when
I got to try the miracle Berry. Yes, the only
(27:24):
kind of trip I'm taking. Still at home, everyone's still
here in our closets. Um, cats making noises in the background. Yeah,
of course. I think it adds texture. Absolutely everyone wanted
from their food podcast. Texture. That's what people love about food.
(27:45):
Some people do and here listeners. If you have ever
had a miracle berry experience, we would love to hear
about it. Yes, absolutely. You can email us at Hello
at saperpod dot com. We're also on social media. You
can find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at saver
pod and we do hope to hear from you. Savor
(28:07):
is production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts to
my heart Radio, you can visit the I Heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Thank you as always to our super producers Dylan Fagan
and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and we
hope that lots more good things are coming your way
Savor News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
Popular Podcasts
United States of Kennedy
United States of Kennedy is a podcast about our cultural fascination with the Kennedy dynasty. Every week, hosts Lyra Smith and George Civeris go into one aspect of the Kennedy story.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com