The Six Tastes

About Bitter

Elements: Ether, Air
Treat 'Bitter' with 'Sweet', ''Heavy', ''Liquid'.
Show me 'Bitter' ingredients.

Bitters and Digestion

Ayurveda suggests that a healthy gut will eliminate food six hours after eating it. The holy grail of six hour elimination exists today in indigenous societies with higher consumption of bitters but not for our society of refined flours and sugars.

The body perceives bitters as a poison and stimulates various organs for protection. In case of edible bitters, this has a beneficial, stimulating effect on digestion. Bitters stimulate peristalsis, the release of bile in the liver and gall bladder, and clear the blood of pitta.

Bitters, Cravings, and Fat Metabolism

Bitters are the missing taste in the modern diet but they are the most common taste in nature. Our ancestors subsisted on diets high in bitters for millennia. Naturally, in a bitter environment, sweet taste was rare and highly desirable. Our taste buds have not yet evolved for modern, convenient availability of sweet taste.

Bitters are drying to the body, cause an increase in metabolism, and scrape fat. Bitter purifies the body and dries up all secretions. Bitter resets the taste buds and destroys food cravings. By reducing fat and forcing the ego to confront displeasure, bitter taste increases ether element.

Qualities of Bitter

Bitters are light, cooling, clearing and drying. They alleviate pitta and kapha and cleanse the body of toxicity. Bitters create a descending action that alleviates dizziness and fainting from heat conditions including fevers. Bitters are used to treat fever because they also clear the blood plasma of impurities (ama) and sweet taste (kledaka kapha). Bitter taste clears wounds and purifies the skin and muscle tissue.

Excess bitter aggravates Vata causing tissue wasting and hardening, loss of strength and libido, and dryness of mouth.

Examples of Bitters

Most leafy greens, coffee, orange peel, and dandelions are bitter. Chocolate undergoes significant processing to remove bitter taste. There are many examples of bitter herbs: Neem is pure bitter taste and a key ingredient in mahasudarshan. Gymnema sylvestre (gurmar) is used for diabetes, food cravings, and weight loss.