The Simple Science of Digestive Bitters

Throughout history, digestive bitters have been commonly used to promote digestion. As humans organized early medical systems, we see mention of bitters in almost every culture, from Ayurveda and Chinese medicine to the original bitter liquids of the Mediterranean. Ready to learn more about the simple science of digestive bitters?

Bitters tap into our body's inherent response to bitter flavors that help to stimulate bitter taste receptors on the tongue, which then signal the brain to communicate with the digestive system to release digestive enzymes and juices in preparation for digestion. 

With the rise of industrial agriculture, our culture has moved away from bitter foods in favor of sweet and salty foods, yet research shows that taking a holistic approach to stimulate your digestion with digestive bitters, such as Underberg herbal digestive, is a good idea.

Say Hello to Bitter Taste Receptors: T2R

When it comes to consuming food, it all starts in the tongue, which helps us distinguish between good and toxic substances and guide our food choices. This organ is composed of thousands of taste buds, each containing a set of 50 to 100 specialized cells that are known as taste receptor cells. Flavor is the combined sensory impression of food, and it is determined by the five basic qualities of taste: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami. 

The human genome contains 29 bitter taste receptors known as T2R receptors, located almost everywhere we look in the human body. In addition to your tongue, your stomach, gut, pancreas, and liver can also tell when you consume something bitter.

Science of Digestive Bitters and Stomach Acid

Gastric acid, gastric juice, or stomach acid, is a digestive fluid formed within the stomach lining and plays a key role in the digestion of proteins by activating digestive enzymes, which together break down the long chains of amino acids in proteins.

Having low stomach acid is a very common problem. It’s estimated that close to 90% of Americans actually don’t have enough stomach acid, which can have a profound impact on the body’s ability to properly digest and absorb nutrients. There are a number of contributing factors for low stomach acid such as stress, consuming processed food, and/or excess alcohol consumption. The good news is that – once diet and lifestyle are addressed – it is relatively easy to naturally increase stomach acid levels with digestive bitters

UNDERBERG: THE WORLDS BITTERS OF CHOICE

Bitters stimulate digestion, this is especially good after meals. From inception, humans have evolved consuming a wide variety of wild plants, most of which were rich with bitter flavors, but our modern diet severely lacks them. Digestive bitters are an easy way to reintroduce beneficial bitterness back into our diets. Think about bitters as useful allies for your immune system, heart, blood vessels, and the level of tension in your gut. 

Small, practical, and always exactly the right portion for well-being, each Underberg bottle contains exactly 20 ml - the perfect size to foster well-being. Feel bright and alert after a good meal with an elixir that cannot be explained: it must be experienced.