Small intestine can sense and react to bitter toxins in food

TOXINS in food often have a bad, bitter taste that makes people want to spit them out. New UC Irvine research finds that bitterness also slows the digestive process, keeping bad food in the stomach longer and increasing the chances that it will be expelled.

This second line of defense in the gut against dietary toxins also triggers the production of a hormone that makes people feel full, presumably to keep them from eating more of the toxic food.

This discovery has the potential to help scientists develop better therapies for ailments ranging from cancer to diabetes, and it may explain why certain isolated populations around the world have adapted to eat and enjoy local foods that taste bad to outsiders and make them sick.

The study, appearing online Oct. 9 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, was performed with mice, and the results probably translate to humans, said Timothy Osborne, molecular biology and biochemistry professor and study senior author.

“We have evolved mechanisms to combat the ingestion of toxins in our food,” Osborne said. “This provides a framework for an entirely new area of research on how our bodies respond to what is present in our diets.”