Bitter Foods: Nature’s Bile Boosters and the Key to a Healthy Digestive System

Bitter foods have been used for centuries within a variety of different cultures, for both food and medicine. They play an especially important role in Eastern and Traditional Chinese Medicine for digestive system support. Bitter foods help optimize digestion by promoting bile production in the liver. Let’s discuss the role of bitter foods for digestion, as well as some of our favorite bitter bile boosters!

Understanding Bile and Its Role in Digestion

Bile is a substance produced by the liver and released into the small intestine to help emulsify and break down fats. It also is essential for removing excess cholesterol and other waste products and toxins from the body. 

Bile contains a variety of compounds, including bile salts, bilirubin, cholesterol, and other fats. Without enough bile, our fat digestion suffers. Impaired digestion not only causes digestive discomfort but also impacts how well we absorb nutrients from the foods we eat. This especially impacts our ability to digest and absorb fat-soluble vitamins like vitamins A, D, E, and K.

Bile is also important for effective elimination of toxins and waste products, such as mold mycotoxins and endocrine-disrupting chemicals. It also helps regulate cholesterol elimination, which is key to maintaining healthy cholesterol levels in the blood.

Optimal bile flow and liver function are also critical for thyroid hormone activation, or the conversion of inactive T4 into the active T3 form of thyroid hormones. Thyroid hormones are responsible for regulating the speed of digestion, which is important for preventing bloating and constipation.

How Bitter Foods Naturally Boost Bile Production and Digestion

Eating bitter foods stimulates liver bile production naturally! Taste receptors on the tongue help detect bitter flavors. This signals the release of a variety of gut hormones that help regulate appetite, the speed of digestion, and blood sugar levels. 

Scientists who study evolutionary biology believe that about 1 million years ago, humans developed a genetic mutation that gave us the ability to taste bitter compounds in foods. This adaptation gave our ancestors important protection against foods that were toxic or had gone bad. 

While now we don’t need to rely on detecting bitter flavors as a survival mechanism, we can reap significant digestive benefits from consuming bitter foods. Bitter foods not only upregulate gut hormones, but they also stimulate the production of bile in the liver and digestive enzymes in the pancreas. This helps us better digest and absorb the nutrients from the foods that we eat.

Healthy flowing bile also helps regulate hormone production, given the complex interplay between reproductive hormones like estrogen and progesterone, and bile. Estrogen levels, if too high or too low, impact bile flow and can have downstream effects such as poor digestion, heartburn, diarrhea, constipation, GI infections, PMS symptoms, and more. 

Bitter Foods To Add to Your Shopping List

• Citrus Fruits: We may think of grapefruit as the most predominant bitter citrus fruit, but even lemon, limes and oranges can provide bitter benefits, especially if you eat some of the pith, or white portion between the fruit and the peel, as well as the rind. Don’t skip out on including fresh citrus juice and zest into your beverages, salad dressings, baked goods, etc.!
• Apple cider vinegar (ACV): ACV is a fantastic food to incorporate that helps kick start digestion by stimulating digestive enzyme and bile production. It also naturally contains acetic acid, which helps improve blood sugar levels after meals! Check out one of our favorite ways to incorporate ACV into your routine here (linked)!
• Leafy Greens: Greens like arugula and kale also provide bitter benefits and are great to incorporate into any meal. Dandelion greens pack more of a bitter punch and even greater liver supportive benefits. These leafy greens are also a great source of B vitamins, which are essential for proper metabolism.
• Cruciferous Veggies: Also referred to as members of the brassica family, cruciferous veggies include broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kale, cabbage, and others. The bitter-tasting compounds in these vegetables have been found to have a wide variety of benefits, from neuroprotective effects to blood sugar and immune system support.
• Bitter Herbs: Herbs such as gentian and milk thistle are well known for their liver supportive properties. These are often available in supplement or tincture form, and can also be found dried and in teas.

Give Your Liver Some Love!

Bitter foods can be incorporated into the diet in a variety of different ways – within beverages, dressings, soups, stir-fries, and more. They are such a powerful way to support optimal bile production, liver function, and overall digestive health through nutrition. This, in turn, can also help decrease inflammation within the body.

Within our Inflammation Hormony group program you can find a variety of liver-supportive recipes that highlight these bitter foods. And the best news is that you don’t have to wait for our next live program! Join today to get started with our proven nutrition program to fight inflammation, revitalize your energy, and restore vibrant hormone health.

Written by Romana Brennan, MS, RD