If recent predictions are right, the future of food on Earth is looking rather dismal: predatory fish are on the verge of extinction, as are wild oysters – in fact, the planet could be on the verge of running out of food by 2050. One potential ally, reports Wired Magazine, could lie in a small, red berry that was responsible for "flavour-tripping" parties that were quasi-en vogue in Toronto a couple of years ago: miracle fruit.
For the uninitiated, miracle fruit (known to pompous-types as synsepalum dulcificum, and completely unrelated to “magical” fruit) alters one’s sense of taste upon consumption. More specifically, the fruit “binds with the taste buds and acts as a sweetness inducer,” according to the New York Times. Taste is affected for around an hour, making lemons taste like lemonade, or vinegar taste like apple juice.
Apparently, the fruit’s benefits go beyond the nifty. According to Chicago chef Homaro Cantu, the berry’s taste-altering power could be harnessed to make items we wouldn’t normally think of as food – like bitter grasses, cacti or even straw – enjoyable to eat, increasing the food supply of famine-stricken regions.
“It works 100 percent of the time,” Cantu told Wired.com. “We haven’t seen any side effects. That’s just huge.”
Critics have pointed out that using the berry could be inordinately expensive, and that raw grass – even if it tastes good – is still just raw grass. Still, it’s an interesting notion, and it could also work on a less planet-saving scale. Chemotherapy patients, apparently, regain a normal palate spectrum after eating a berry, allowing them to more easily gain weight.
And here’s a thought we haven’t had since high school: maybe tripping really can save the world.
[Wired]