Bitters and Digestion | The Forgotten Link in Gut Health

Some things disappear so slowly we don’t notice what’s been lost until our bodies start asking questions we don’t know how to answer. Bitters are one of those things.

For most of human history, bitter plants were everywhere. They were in our foraging baskets, in the leaves we chewed without thinking, in the roots we dug up, even in the fruits that (believe it or not) weren’t always sweet. Our digestive systems developed around that bitter taste. It wasn’t just a flavour, it was a signal, a spark that told the entire gut, “Wake up, food is coming.”

The Disconnect

Today, that signal is largely gone. We’ve sweetened our fruit, and bred out anything that tastes sharp or confronting. Modern agriculture decided bitterness was bad for business, and bit by bit, it disappeared from the plate. But our biology didn’t get the memo. It still waits for that simple bitter taste to trigger the whole digestive cascade. When that signal never arrives, the digestive system never fully turns on. Stomach acid stays low. Bile thickens and moves sluggishly. Enzymes arrive late. The vagus nerve remains half-asleep. And the colon, which depends on everything upstream working properly, ends up overloaded, irritated, or confused.

When bitters vanished, everything from reflux to bloating to food intolerance started climbing. Not because humans suddenly became fragile, but because an entire digestive ritual went missing.

The Return

The interesting thing is that your body hasn’t forgotten how to respond. The bitter receptors on your tongue still work, and there are even bitter receptors all through your digestive tract, waiting for that old familiar signal. People are shocked at how quickly things change when they bring a small amount of bitterness back. Sometimes it takes only a sip of bitter tea or a drop of a bitter extract. Within seconds, warmth spreads through the stomach. Saliva increases. There’s a softening in the belly.

Bitters wake up the vagus nerve. They encourage smoother bile release instead of those big sudden dumps that irritate the colon. They help the stomach build the acid it needs before the food arrives, not after. They prepare the pancreas so enzymes show up on time. They tell the whole system, “We’re doing this properly now.”

Giving it a Try

If you want to try bitters, keep it simple. You don’t need to turn this into a hobby or buy twenty different bottles. Start with something gentle and familiar:

• A small cup of dried lemon peel tea | One of the easiest ways to bring bitterness back in. Just a pinch of peel in hot water is enough to wake the gut without overwhelming it. [shop link - dried lemon peel]

• A few leaves of rocket | Take 5 - 10mins before dinner, it works surprisingly well. It’s the kind of bitterness our grandparents wouldn’t have thought twice about.

• Bitters extract | If you want something a little stronger. It’s the classic digestive bitter used for generations to switch the vagus nerve back on and help the stomach get ready. [shop link - digestive bitters]

You don’t need much. It’s the signal that matters, not the dose.

When to be Careful

Bitters aren’t for everyone. If you have an active ulcer, severe gastritis, or acute gallbladder pain, you’d wait. But for most people, bitters are one of the most gentle, natural ways to bring digestion back into rhythm without force or overwhelm.

If you want your gut to feel more predictable, calmer, warmer, more alive, bitters can be a way of giving your digestion that old familiar rhythm it’s been waiting for. In a world that stripped bitterness away, adding just a little back can be enough to wake the whole system up again.

You can find more rhythm-based approaches to gut health, in my book The Rhythm of Health.