– There are a variety of bitter taste receptors. So sweet, salty, sour, spicy. They have about one type of receptor for each one of those. With bitter there’s over 20 different types of receptors for bitter. And with sweet, sour, salty, spicy, those taste receptors are found on the tongue. With bitter, there are bitter receptor sites not just on the tongue. But there are bitter receptor sites in the cardiovascular system. There are bitter receptor sites all throughout the small intestine, in the throat. In the lungs actually and that when the bitter receptors sites in the lungs are stimulated it actually triggers the lungs to relax. So you can even think about using bitters as a possible adjunct remedy for something like asthma even. Or some sort of constricted lung issues. There’s also bitter receptor sites in the pancreatic duct as well as in the brain. So brain cells even have bitter receptor sites. Reason being is because bitters actually will stimulate vagus nerve activity and that can actually cause enhanced digestion. The vagus nerve is a nerve that runs from the brain stem, innervates a variety of organs eventually into the gut. And it’s the main communication pathway between the gut and the brain. That’s the gut brain access right there. And so bitters can actually stimulate brain cells, increase vagus nerve tone, improve digestion, improve neuronal functioning. So bitters can do a variety of things there. But one of the best things that bitters do is they stimulate digestive forces. So when we consume bitters and that taste of bitter, and that’s really the important thing is actually getting the taste of bitter on the tongue. That taste of the bitter on the tongue will immediately send a message to the stomach to start producing hydrochloric acid. It’ll send a message to the pancreas to start secreting pancreatic juices. It’ll send a message to the gallbladder to start releasing bile. The gallbladder is a bulbous shaped organ. Like a baby aspirator and when it’s stimulated it contracts and it releases bile through the bile duct down into the small intestine. And that helps with fat emulsification. So what you have happen when you get the taste of bitter in your mouth, is you get this threefold stimulation of all your digestive forces. So for improving digestion it’s really one of my favorite things to do. A lot of people will take digestive enzymes. Or they’ll take hydrochloric acid and sometimes there’s a need for that. But really by starting with bitters, what you’re doing is you’re stimulating your own inherent digestive forces. And that’s really important. We want to produce and secrete our own digestive forces. We don’t, there is a time and place for this. Digestive enzymes and hydrochloric acid. If somebody is hypochlorhydric, meaning they have weak stomach acid, then hydrochloric acid supplements are really important. But as a first line of improving digestion, we really want to work with the bitters. That way we’re stimulating our own inherent forces and we’re not relying on something from the outside to come in and digest for us. And with hydrochloric acid there’s a build up to it and it can actually build up your stomach acid and then you can titrate back down. So that’s really unique in its own capacity there. But with digestive enzymes they just kind of come in and they do the work. So I’m a big fan of stimulating our own forces.