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There's a saying, The bitter the better Many bitter foods are highly nutritious. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/bitter-foods https://www.healthline.com/

• naniwaduni 3y ago
  Bitterness is quite literally the "this is poison, stop eating" taste category that incidentally happens to have a lot of false positives because for the most part it's cheaper to reject some good food than to accept eating some poison. An ironic thing to say in a thread about peppers, but still.
  • bmacho 3y ago
    And much much more false negatives, which raises the question if the "stop eating this, this is bitter and bitter means poisonous" has any truth in it.
    • PawgerZ 3y ago
      If bitter = poisonous, then the plants that evolve to be more bitter will be eaten less. Thus, non-poisonous foods that evolve to be more bitter have a genetic advantage over their less bitter counterparts.
      • hollerith 3y ago
        That would be true if there were a fitness advantage for the plant when a herbivore dies, but in actually the fitness advantage comes from discouraging the herbivore from eating the plant.