Bitter food, better health? ⏲️ 6 Minute English

Hello. This is 6 minute English from BBC

Learning English. I'm Phil...

and I'm Beth. Phil,

I'm going to start this episode with grapefruit. I've got some here.

Do you want some?

I'm not that keen on grapefruit.

They're too bitter for me.

Oh, that's a shame, because this episode is all about

bitter food. It has actually been linked to a number of health benefits.

So maybe you should take my grapefruit.

I might not like it that much, but in this programme,

we'll be finding out how bitter foods can benefit our health and of course,

we'll be learning some useful new vocabulary.

That should give you a taste of what's coming up.

But before that, if you want to learn vocabulary to talk about world events

search for our News Review podcast.

We look at vocabulary about a major news story every week.

But back to this episode,

I have a question for you, Phil.

How many different basic flavours

can humans taste? Is it a) four b) five or c) six?

I can think of bitter, sweet, salty and sour

so I'm going to go with four.

I think we can taste four basic flavours.

OK, Phil, I'll reveal the correct answer later.

Leyla Kazim presents 'The Food programme' on BBC Radio 4.

Here she is talking about some of the possible benefits of bitter food.

New research has found a remarkable link between bitter foods and our health.

It seems they have an incredible ability to interact with our gut microbiome,

suppress feelings of hunger,

control glucose release and even counter chronic inflammation

in the body. Could bitter be the answer at the tip of our tastebuds?

Bitter foods can interact with our gut microbiome.

A microbiome is a collection

of micro-organisms that can be found in a particular part of the body.

it includes fungi, bacteria and viruses. Micro-organisms in our gut

play an important role in the digestive process.

They are our gut microbiome.

If we suppress something, then we stop it from happening or operating.

We heard that bitter foods can suppress hunger feelings.

This means that they stop people feeling hungry.

If we try to suppress a feeling, we're trying to stop it.

Leyla asks if bitter foods are the answer at the tip of our tastebuds.

Normally, we'd say that something we can't quite remember

is on the tip of our tongue.

Here, we have tastebuds which are the receptors on our tongue

and inside our mouths that can detect flavours like bitterness.

So it seems that bitter foods could be very beneficial,

but they're not always the easiest foods to love. In BBC

Radio 4's 'The Food Programme' presenter Leyla Kazim spoke

to chef Alexina Anatole, who points out that we might be consuming

more bitter food than we realise.

I think it's a real perception issue with it.

I think people are exposed to bitterness way more than they think they are.

But there's this perception of bitter and negativity, both

in terms of emotions and food, right?

Bitterness is generally an undesirable trait.

But there are so many very very mainstream bitter things.

Such as?

Chocolate, coffee, you know, alcohol

any alcohol has a degree of bitterness to it.

Alexina says that many people see bitterness as an undesirable trait.

A trait is a characteristic

so an undesirable trait is a characteristic that people don't want.

We often see bitterness as a bad thing. We also often use undesirable traits

to refer to negative aspects of people's personalities.

Alexina points out that there are a number

of mainstream things that have a bitter flavour.

If something is mainstream,

then it means it's ordinary and part of what most people consume.

She listed chocolate and coffee as mainstream things.

The other mainstream

thing mentioned was alcohol. We heard that

it has a degree of bitterness.

If something has a degree of something, then

it has at least a small,

but noticeable amount of it.

OK. Now, I think it's time to hear the answer to your question.

Right, I asked how many basic flavours

humans can taste.

And I guessed it was four.

Which unfortunately, was not the right answer.

The answer is in fact, five, the flavour that you missed is

umami which comes from a Japanese word and refers to a savoury flavour,

often found in grilled meats or broths.

OK, let's recap the vocabulary we've learnt.

Starting with microbiome -

the collection of micro-organisms found in a specific part of the body.

Suppress means prevent from operating or happening.

Tastebuds are the receptors found on the tongue and

in the mouth that sense flavours.

An undesirable trait is a negative characteristic that we don't want.

If something is mainstream, then it's something

that most people would use.

It's not unusual.

And finally, a degree of something is a small,

but noticeable amount of something. Once again,

our six minutes are up.

Remember to join us again next time for more topical discussion

and useful vocabulary here at 6 Minute

English. Goodbye for now.

Bye.