Information about Miracle Fruit Berry

[Found this interesting article at the webpage of www.miraclefruithealth.com. In fact, I have planted a healthy tree at home and the fruits is available throughout the year]

“Miracle fruit, or Synsepalum dulcificum, is a bush native to West Africa. Eating the berries from a miracle fruit plant causes bitter and sour foods such as lemons and rhubarb to taste sweet.

This effect lasts between ten minutes and two hours. Miracle fruit is 100% natural and has no known adverse side effects.”

The miracle fruit plant (Synsepalum dulcificum) is a plant first documented in 1725 during an excursion to its native West Africa. To enhance the flavor of their food in general, local tribes picked the berry from shrubs and chewed it before meals.

The berry contains an active glycoprotein called Miraculin. Miraculin gently binds to the tongue's taste buds, causing bitter and sour foods (such as lemons and limes) consumed afterwards to taste sweet. This effect lasts between ten minutes and two hours. It is not an artificial sweetener. Miracle fruit is 100% natural and has no known adverse side effects (beyond its temporary flavor-altering properties).
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[Following additional information is taken from Wikipedia]

The miracle fruit plant ( Synsepalum dulcificum ) produces berries that, when eaten, cause sour foods (such as lemons and limes ) consumed later to taste sweet. The berry, also known as miracle, magic, miraculous or flavor berry, was first documented by explorer Chevalier des Marchais who searched for many different fruits during a 1725 excursion to its native West Africa. Marchais noticed that local tribes picked the berry from shrubs and chewed it before meals. The plant grows in bushes up to 20 feet (6.1 m) high in its native habitat, but does not usually grow higher than ten feet in cultivation, and it produces two crops per year, after the end of the rainy season. It is an evergreen plant that produces small red berries, with flowers that are white and which are produced for many months of the year. The seeds are about the size of coffee beans.

The berry contains an active glycoprotein molecule, with some trailing carbohydrate chains, called miraculin. When the fleshy part of the fruit is eaten, this molecule binds to the tongue's taste buds, causing sour foods to taste sweet. While the exact cause for this change is unknown, one hypothesis is that the effect may be caused if miraculin works by distorting the shape of sweetness receptors "so that they become responsive to acids, instead of sugar and other sweet things". This effect lasts 15-30 minutes.

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Diabetes, Cancer, Medication, and Miracle Fruits*

By : Robert Michael Burlingame (The Author is a diabetic who uses miracle fruits as natural sweeteners. The fruit has helped him cope with his condition and his yearnings for sweet foods, and he enjoys sharing his miracle fruit experience with others.
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If you, a relative, or a friend have ever had to endure diabetes, cancer, or heavy medication, then you probably know how difficult it is to get through such tough medical situations. Medical patients who have to forgo sweet foods and those who are under heavy medication often have to put up with tasteless food or an altered perception of taste due to medication. It's bad enough that patients have to battle with cancer, diabetes, or heavy medication, but even worse is the fact that they usually cannot eat or even taste the types of food that they really want. Fortunately, there is good news and hope for those who are suffering from tasteless or distasteful diets, and that hope comes in the form of a small berry called the miracle fruit. Read on to see how miracle fruits can be used to enhance flavor and help people dealing with cancer, diabetes, or heavy medication.

A miracle for cancer and chemotherapy patients

One of the primary complaints that cancer and chemotherapy patients have with regard to their treatment is that the food they take has a metallic flavor. For this reason, patients often lose their appetite and find even their favorite foods unappetizing. Furthermore, cancer and chemotherapy patients are normally prescribed a strict diet that is meant to supply the body with the nutrients that it needs to eliminate toxins and help clean the body.

The miracle fruit, which has the ability to make sour and bitter flavors taste sweet, can be used to help cancer and chemotherapy patients deal with both the metallic taste and the unappetizing diet. In fact, some people claim that miracle fruits helped completely eliminate the metallic taste that they often get when eating.

A miracle for diabetics

Diabetes is one of the hardest medical conditions to deal with. If diabetes is left untreated and blood sugar levels are left unregulated, diabetics can suffer serious complications such as kidney failure, blindness, heart attack, stroke, and wounds that fail to heal. To control their sugar levels, people who are affected by diabetes have to change their entire lifestyle just to control their blood sugar levels and stay healthy. Perhaps the hardest part of being a diabetic is having to forgo sweets, sugars, and sweeteners of all kinds.

Enter the miracle fruit, a natural sweetener that not only makes sour and bitter taste sweet, but also helps clean the body with its antioxidants and phytonutrients. Whether you have to eat sugar-free, tasteless desserts or fruits and vegetables that you abhor, miracle fruits can become a diabetic's good friend. With miracle fruits, diabetics can get all of the sweetness and flavor that they crave without the detrimental effects.

A miracle for those under heavy medication

Medical patients who have to undergo heavy medication often have to deal with an altered taste of perception. Some medications can make food tasteless or change the perception of taste altogether. Miracle fruit can be used to inject some flavor into one's diet. All it takes is a little miracle fruit to coat the tongue and for about 30 minutes to over an hour, sour and bitter flavors will taste sweet, injecting some flavor back into one's diet.