
Feeding Plants Artificial Sweeteners (2010) - luu
https://www.jefftk.com/p/feeding-plants-artificial-sweeteners
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jefftk
Turns out putting saccharin on radishes mostly just attracts ants and kills
the plants ([https://www.jefftk.com/p/radish-experiment-
day-9-saccharin-b...](https://www.jefftk.com/p/radish-experiment-
day-9-saccharin-bad-for-radishes-image)) and the surviving ones don't taste
any different ([https://www.jefftk.com/p/saccharin-does-not-affect-the-
taste...](https://www.jefftk.com/p/saccharin-does-not-affect-the-taste-of-
radishes)).

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elvecinodeabajo
It looks quite obvious that saccharin isn't good for plants, but it's good to
have results of a simple experiment to demonstrate it. Good work! Thanks a
lot!

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jefftk
Throughout the experiment I was telling friends that I knew it was a silly
idea that was very unlikely to work, but it was also easy and fun to try, and
if it turned out to work it would be very interesting.

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lm28469
> The main reason most people don't enjoy eating lemons is that they are
> insufficiently sweet. I think a lot of people would be interested in lemons
> that tasted like lemonade.

Yeah, people would eat many Xs if they tasted like Ys ... Some people should
really go in a no (added) sugar diet for a bit, even things like lemons become
sweet after a few weeks of no junk/sugary food. I've witnessed people dipping
slices of apple in white sugar so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

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criddell
I've never done the no-sugar thing, but I did switch to drinking fizzy water
rather than soda a few years ago. Today I'll occasionally order a Coke or Dr
Pepper and it tastes so syrupy sweet to me now that I can only manage to drink
a small amount. I enjoy it, but it gets overwhelming quickly.

Ten years ago I would routinely get a 20+ oz soda with my meal and that feels
unimaginable to me today. Part of that is just me getting old. Consuming a
bunch of sugar today leaves me feeling hungover tomorrow.

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foxyv
When I think of how much high fructose corn syrup I ran through my liver when
I was young I want to cry a little. It's so disgusting!

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Bluecobra
But Brawndo's got what plants crave! It's got electrolytes.

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pvaldes
Does not work like that. Physiology of plants 101.

This is not different than some people thinking that a colagen cream magically
puts inside the big molecules that are just extended over the skin, or that
you can take iron in your diet just touching a iron bar.

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nelsonic
The first comment on the post mentions Miracle berries. The taste-modifying
protein miraculin contained in miracle fruit has been added to tomatos to
increase sweetness and thus reduce the amount of sugar they need to add to
ketchup. see:
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22160133](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22160133)
I'm surprised there is not more research into adding miraculin to other bitter
(but healthy) foods.

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jefftk
That's fascinating! My experience with miraculin [1] wasn't very positive
because it completely removed the sour flavor, though perhaps in smaller doses
it would make sense?

I guess I'd also worry that it would be hard to cook and eat because it adds
an unusual dependency between ingredients: normally you don't worry that your
ketchup on your hot dog will later make your cake taste too sweet.

[1] [https://www.jefftk.com/p/miracle-berry](https://www.jefftk.com/p/miracle-
berry)

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xchaotic
This doesn’t work but the obvious solution is to add the sweetener after - mix
in with lemon juice or whatever.

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pvaldes
And another obvious solution would be to use any of the thousands of Citrus
varieties developped for almost anything.

