Bitter Foods Good For Digestion. Because bitter foods stimulate digestion, they are also helping your body stay actively in the parasympathetic nervous system (think rest and digest). When these receptors are stimulated by bitter foods, our brain perceives the bitterness, and our vagus nerve relays the bitter sensation to our salivary glands, stomach, pancreas, and liver.
Individuals with osteoporosis should consider eating foods rich in vitamin k such as the bitter melon. There is more and more research being published that shows the positive effects that bitter foods (often called, simply, bitters) can have on the digestive tract. Bitter foods as you can see from above are important for people with medium and heavy builds.
Studies show that bitters can aid in digestion by stimulating the secretion of saliva, gastric juice and bile, all of which are essential to facilitating the digestion process.
Well one approach is to eat more bitter foods. For example, if it’s healthy digestion you’re after, look for berberine, a bitter compound from various shrubs and plants, and andrographis, a plant native to india that helps support bacterial flora in the gut. Otherwise, the lack of this vitamin may cause bone fractures, easy bruising, defective blood clotting and excessive menstrual bleeding to name a few. Bitter foods such as gentian (the primary component of digestive bitters), rapini, radicchio and kale stimulate the flow of digestive juices and are thought to aid in both digestion and easing gas production.