You know what's the most annoying thing while having supper?
Your phone starts ringing? No. You need not pay attention to it. Plus you can always mute it.
Hearing someone saying "mere pyare deshvasiyon" on TV. No. If you listen to this you'll forget about supper. That's not annoying, but alarming.
Then what?
Just imagine, you are devouring on that delicious food you cooked with so much effort, with all the side dishes and a plate of green and healthy salad. And as soon as you take that bite of fresh cucumber, yuck! That bitter taste! This was absolutely annoying for me.
This left me wondering why the hell this cucumber needs to taste bitter. And guess what I found out? Of course by googling it.
The bitter taste in cucumbers and its other cousins is imparted by a certain class of chemicals called cucurbitacin which are produced as a self defence mechanism against herbivores. Consumption of any part of these plants with excess production of this chemical can really make you sick.
Really. Can plants defend themselves in order not to get eaten by grass eating animals, by producing excess of poisonous substances?
To my surprise, I again stumbled upon an interesting scientific lecture, by Dr. George Diggs, while browsing and googling this stuff. While talking about various defence mechanisms in plants and focussing upon chemical defence mechanism, the lecture explained how the basic food crops we consume try to defend themselves.
The food grains, soyabean, wheat, cassava, etc., can produce certain chemicals that act as enzyme inhibitors in herbivores. This leads to food allergies, lack of nutrition intake, innate immune response, and much more. Many berries like peaches, cherries including almonds and apples, can lead to cyanide toxicity. And many other food items we consume daily are related to several health issues
After going through the lecture, I was left even more bewildered. Even plants don't like to get eaten. Then what shall I eat?
Maybe I should follow my regular routine. But I do know now that I won't be eating bitter cucumbers anymore.
Meanwhile