Chaitanya B.

The miracle fruit, also known as the miraculous berry, comes from a shrub native to West Africa. Right off the bat, you may be asking yourself: why is it called the miracle fruit? There are many documented reasons that justify the name of this fruit, including the fact that it helps to increase metabolism, reduce blood pressure & diabetes, and help out with overall health. But, the most interesting claim about this fruit is that it allegedly makes everything taste sweeter! What? 8O

Fruit-2When the flesh of the fruit is eaten, molecules called miraculin bind to the tongue's taste buds causing sour foods to taste sweet. At neutral pH when you haven't eaten anything sour, you won't be able to notice much of a difference on your tongue. But at a low pH, resulting from ingestion of sour foods, miraculin binds proteins and becomes able to activate the sweet receptors, making your aftertaste sweet. This effect lasts for about 30 mins. So who knows? Maybe instead of adding more sugar to your cheesecake, you could just eat some miracle fruit beforehand :P

Just for funsies, these are the superhero transformations that have occurred in people's mouth after they've consumed miracle fruit:

Lemon -------> Lemonade

Cream Cheese -------> Cheesecake

Sour Cream -------> Ice Cream

Koolaid Mix -------> Powdered Sugar

Tabasco Sauce------->

Wait for it..............

Hot Donut Glaze? 8O