When will things take off?, page-14

Hi Buckland …There’s taste and there’s taste! The issue of tongue sensing can be overcome by use of a capsule which is what BRI have done. The more significant issue is what happens in the stomach.

Below is not an exact analogy but close enough to illustrate the problems facing BRI and they seek to create and deliver a high dosage formulation which is tolerable and efficacious. No small order!!

I have taken the following with minor editing from
Source: Neuroscience: Hardwired for Taste
“Bitter-flavored compounds have an effect on us as they are digested. The effect takes about a half hour… and eventually the bitter flavor causes the stomach to stop emptying, making us feel fuller longer. Researchers think that the stomach is holding on to the food because bitterness can be a sign that food is dangerous to eat, and this is a way to keep the body from getting a full dose of toxic compounds at once.

The reaction of the stomach doesn’t immediately make sense. Bitterness can be the result of all kinds of different chemical combinations, only some of which are dangerous. The stomach holds on to food only in response to bitter flavors, and not actual dangerous poisons. How does the stomach know what’s bitter and what’s not?

The stomach has taste receptors of its own. After all, taste buds on the tongue are just chemical identifiers that are hooked up to our conscious mind in order to get us to keep wolfing down certain chemicals. The taste receptors in the stomach aren’t hooked up to our conscious brain, but they are hooked up to some kind of sensory response system, and when that sensory system notes a lot of bitter-tasting food, it puts the brakes on digestion.”