So the media and blogs alike are a-bizz about the Miracle Berry - Synsepalum dulcificum - and also called: Magic Fruit, Miraculous Berry or Flavour Berry.

It’s the latest fruit to hit the headlines as having potential uses for the dieting industry. Although it is hardly a ‘new discovery’ having first been bought to public attention by the explorer Chevalier de Marchais way back in 1725 when he came across it on his travels in West Africa - wher the Mracle Berry grows.

And why is this fruit a potenetial weight loss aid? Because it has the ‘power’ to modify the way your taste buds interpret flavors.

Nibble a Miracle Berry and for almost an hour those foods that tasted sour and astringent will tast delightfully sweet! So you can enjoy sour grapefruits, lemons and other tangy fruits - with gay abandon…

Errrm…So just how does this help you diet? You may well ask! And to be fair that’s what I was wondering when the this item about Miracle Berries came to rampant media attentioan and evolved into a volcanic hot topic for Googlers earlier today!

Admittedly, eating more lemons may well be somehat helpful for alkalizing the body. And grapefruit has long be touted as a dieters friend.

But is the answer to the dieters needs: “being able to taste things as sweet that really aren’t?”

I doubt it.

Indeed, the trick for many dieter who want to ‘kick the habit’ of being addicted to sweet things - a much better idea by the way - is to try and STOP eating so many sweet foods for a while (OK, easier said than done, I know). But sugar addiction is very largely habitual and if you can discipline yourself to taking a few mostly sugar-free days you would be amazed at just how ’sickly sweet’ many foods you may be consuming without a second tought right now really are when you taste them again.

Sugar is a ‘legal’ high that maufacturers add into their product recipes BECAUSE THEY KNOW it is addictive and will keep you coming back for more!

Many processed foods are loaded with sugar for just this reason (along with the fact that high sugar content inproves shelf life - because bugs can’t grow in highly sugary conditions)

But then when was Mankind ever as clever as ‘little bugs’?

Nature provides all the help we need to be able to choose a sensible diet…But we tend to ignore what Nature tells us (via our sadly neglected natural instincts) in favor of the brash, loud and overwhelming influence of modern marketing and merchandising.

So maybe the Miracle Berry is just another over-hyped and pointless distraction for dieters - who should NOT be encouraged to taste MORE sweet things but should be being inspired to cut back on them…

Now THAT would be a miracle!

Phil 04 02 09

(BTW: Thanks to Wikipedia for the image of the Miracle Berry!)