Ways to make MAF 878... taste nice!

[Sasha]

So... the taste of MAF on its own is pretty sour and yucky and the last couple of days I've been trying to make it more palatable by adding stuff, such as stevia, honey, nutella, cinnamon, which are helping to make it a lot more palatable but it's still not much fun to take.

Peter Trayhurn, a blogger with colorectal cancer, gives this recipe on his blog which is intended both to make the MAF taste nice and (I think) fulfil the requirements of a dietary protocol that he's on. It's quite an epic recipe so maybe too much work for some of us to manage - me, certainly - but a source of ideas (he says it tastes "great"!):

soup ladle MAF 878
1/4 cup coconut water
1/2 cup almond milk homemade
2 tbsp quark
2 tbsp flax oil STONEY CREEK ORGANIC
1 tsp cacao powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp maca powder
1 tsp raw organic honey
1 handful frozen blue berries
2 tbsp acai berry powder

I blended this for a couple of minutes, it made about 2 cups which tasted great. The MAF 878 on its own is a challenging drink.

I don't know if everyone has seen the advice from Dr Enlander to add a tsp of olive oil or flax oil to protect the MAF from digestive enzymes and to take it in a meal containing some protein and fibre.

Prof Ruggiero, in his video, says to swish it around the mouth so that the macrophages in the pharyngeal area get activated. This makes it all the more important to get nice-tasting MAF!

 

[Sasha]

I've been googling on "how to counteract sourness in food" and a common suggestion seems to be to add not just sugar, but salt. Weird.

I notice that the recipe above calls for blueberries, which are pretty tart themselves so I don't think I'll be adding them in.

Has anyone else been experimenting/got any ideas?

 

[Sasha]

Here's something interesting - the so-called "miracle fruit" that contains a protein that switches off the sourness receptors in your tongue for half an hour or so, so that sour things taste sweet:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1023926/The-magic-berry-turns-sour-food-sweet.html

It sounds like something Willy Wonka might have invented at his chocolate factory - a berry that can make everything sour taste sweet. Lemons lose their sharpness, vinegar tastes like sherry and a pint of Guinness comes to resemble chocolate milkshake.

After huge success in the U.S., the so-called 'miracle fruit' is proving a big hit at parties in Britain.

It is available in the form of granules which guests are invited to coat their tongues with. Anything they subsequently eat will taste much sweeter than before. The effects last up to two hours.

Chas Barr, a 28-year-old from South London, gave up his job as an IT specialist to sell the West African red berries through his website, www.miraclefruit.co.uk.

In the past eight months, orders have soared from one or two a month to more than a thousand a week. He said most of his customers were students or those in search of something to amuse guests at a dinner party.

His range is limited to freeze-dried granules and four-inch-high seedlings because the berries, which have a short shelf life, are not available in the UK.

A taster pack of granules costs around £5 and a party pack for ten people fetches around £20.

For the best results, Mr Barr advises: 'Take a hefty pinch of granules between the thumb and first finger, stick it on the tongue and roll it around for about a minute so that every surface of the mouth is coated. 'Then, start tasting. I recommend opening up the fridge and taking everything out.'

The berry, which has the Latin name <cite>Synsepalum dulcificum, </cite>contains a protein that binds to the taste buds, temporarily causing sour and bitter foods to seem sweet.

Adam Morris, who supplies the berry through www.miracleberry.co.uk, said it made fruit salads taste especially odd because it accentuates the contrast between the ingredients.

While the berry makes many foods more palatable, others, including lager and wine, become less appealing. Produce that is already sweet, such as pineapple chunks, becomes almost too sickly to eat

The berries are said to be popular with cancer patients because they help mask the metallic taste in the mouth that sometimes accompanies chemotherapy.

The fruit, which was identified by Western explorers in 1725, could also provide an alternative to sugar for diabetics or dieters.

It is not a sweetener in itself however and its effects depend on what is eaten afterwards.

It's sold here:
http://www.miraclefruit.co.uk/products/

and on UK Amazon here (fulfilled by Amazon, which is good):
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Funkyfoodsh...DU22/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1346410121&sr=8-1

and on Ebay (search on "miracle fruit" - Ebay listings aren't stable so I won't provide a link) - note that it doesn't actually come from the UK, though - even when I selected the "UK only" filter it gave me products that came from Europe.

I just ordered some from Amazon - I will be the canary down the mineshaft on this one!

 

[Sasha]

Here's Richard & Judy (popular UK TV magazine show, for those not familiar with it) eating yummy lemons after trying the miracle fruit:

Can't wait for mine to arrive now!

 

[Forebearance]

I find that the MAF 878 is more palatable when I eat it frozen as a MAF pop. Of course, I eat a very small amount of it.

 

[Sasha]

I find that the MAF 878 is more palatable when I eat it frozen as a MAF pop. Of course, I eat a very small amount of it.

I thought I had read somewhere that freezing the MAF makes it less effective but we discussed it here:

http://forums.phoenixrising.me/inde...ructions-for-making-taking.18961/#post-288852

and ukxmrv thought that maybe freezing the initial culture was the bad idea and after that it was fair game. Certainly cooling it would make it taste less strongly!

 

[Sasha]

This morning's experiment produced the best-tasting MAF yet:

10 drops stevia
1 tsp cinnamon
1 heaped tsp cocoa powder
1 tsp flax oil
75ml MAF

and what also helped was that I blended it with a little Aerolatte cappuccino frother:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Aerolatte-0...T2C4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1346488351&sr=8-1

so that I could actually drink it from the cup (still pausing to swish it round my mouth before swallowing) rather than prolonging the agony by eating it with a spoon. It blended completely smooth, even though that's a tiny, battery-powered gadget (and therefore light and doesn't require major washing up).

I think I might try adding milk tomorrow to dilute the taste, as opposed to just disguising it. I'm also eagerly awaiting the arrival of my miracle fruit tablets!

 

[Sasha]

Tried the milk, didn't make much difference except to prolong the experience. However, I'm pleased with that recipe - had some more this morning, tastes slightly sharp but basically fine and no longer something to dread drinking. I think the blending has made quite a big difference.

 

[ukxmrv]

Great to hear that the recipe is tasting well.

Any new symptoms Sasha?

I gave up on the MAF878 for a while as I had developed intolerable muscle and spine pain. Just started back on it again in the last few days.

 

[Sasha]

Hi ukx - no, no new symptoms - I'm coming out of the mild fluey ones I'd had, and I'd been sleeping a bit in the day, which isn't normal for me. It's possible these were due to a bug I seemed to be coming down with a few days before starting the MAF, though hard to be sure - if so, it's been slightly prolonged beyond the usual ten days.

I'd say my sleep is a bit better - otherwise, I'm back to baseline.

I hope you have a better experience with it this time round - that pain sounds terrible.

Are you doing anything to make the MAF taste better or are you just knocking it back neat?

 

[ukxmrv]

I've trying it neat with a little stevia in it. Thanks for the hint Sasha. I'm also trying to rinse it around in my mouth a little. Hard going as I don't like dairy/fermented and yeasty things normally.

 

[Sasha]

I've trying it neat with a little stevia in it. Thanks for the hint Sasha. I'm also trying to rinse it around in my mouth a little. Hard going as I don't like dairy/fermented and yeasty things normally.

I find the chocolate and cinnamon take the yeasty/fermented taste away - I think they maybe take the dairy taste away too but it's hard for me to tell because I like dairy and so might not notice. Is there any taste you like that you might add in? My life has really gone up a notch since I managed to turn this vile stuff into something more or less to my taste! It was really hard going for me too before I did that. I've just been drinking mine while doing computer stuff and really haven't noticed it going down (even with the swishing around the mouth). I'm no longer waking up in the morning thinking, eurgh, I'm going to have to take that MAF...

 

[Sasha]

Day 16 or so of MAF today and I am actually starting to look forward to drinking the stuff! Wouldn't have believed this possible, before I started adding stuff in to make it palatable.

I can't understate the difference that using the little electric frother has made - blends the stuff really well. Just another normal part of breakfast now.

Am wondering how everyone else is getting on in terms of making their MAF palatable - this thread has had nearly 500 views now but apart from me and ukxmrv, nobody here but us chickens...

 

[xrunner]

Prof. Ruggiero advises to take the MAF after a meal of primarily vegetable fiber to protect it from stomach juices. The only sweetener recommended is honey.
If you add spices and other stuff like cocoa you want to make sure they a) do not deteriorate the MAF and b) have no effect on gastric juices or the protein may get digested before reaching destination. I don't know about adding oil.
I have certainly noticed the difference when deviated from the guidelines.

 

[Sasha]

Hi xrunner - I saw the Prof Ruggiero video and take my MAF after an apple (3g fibre) - there's also a recommendation to have eaten some protein (I can't remember now where I saw that) so I eat an omelette first. Dr Enlander recommends a tsp of oil as a protection against gastric juices so I blend that with the MAF.

I agree it's best to be cautious about not adding something that might deteriorate the MAF so I add my stuff in immediately before blending and drinking the MAF. I've been assuming that, given that you're supposed to take the MAF with/after food, we'd have seen warnings about ingredients to avoid but I haven't seen anything. But you say you've noticed a difference after deviating from the guidelines - could you explain? In what way did you deviate?

 

[xrunner]

I take the 314 not the 878, so we probably act on different info.
The dr suggested to take it after a meal of mostly fruit with skin and veg. However I only take it after a meal of well ripened sweet fruit and easy to digest vegetables. I do not take anything else, avoid anything slightly acidic including any protein, until all of that and the maf have passed through. This gives me the strongest effect.

 

[Sasha]

Thanks, xrunner - that does indeed sound like different advice from that given for MAF 878.

 

[Forebearance]

I'm assuming it's okay to freeze the MAF yogurt once, like the GcMAF.

You know, I'm actually getting to like the taste of the MAF 878. It's sour, but not in a bad way. Like sour kraut or dill pickles.

 

[Rrrr]

i have an extra MAF878 starter kit: anyone want it? if you live in the MA area, we can meet up and i can bring it to you. if not, we can try mailing it. if it arrives safely to you, i would then either sell it for cheap or give it away to you. i got it on august 6th from enlander via snailmail. i was told it is good for 6 wks if kept in the fridge, as is, before it has to be made into MAF878 using yogurt and keifer. i guess if you wait longer than those 6 wks,, it could go bad? then, once made into MAF878, as per the Enlander instructions, i was told it is good in this MAF878 form in the fridge for up to 2 months.

if interested, feel free to "private message" me.

rrrr

 

[Sasha]

I'm assuming it's okay to freeze the MAF yogurt once, like the GcMAF.

You know, I'm actually getting to like the taste of the MAF 878. It's sour, but not in a bad way. Like sour kraut or dill pickles.

Hi Forebearance - I don't think that's a safe assumption about the freezing - I think I read somewhere that freezing does the bugs in, at least to an extent, although people have mentioned on the boards that they've still had some benefit even if they froze theirs. I'm playing it safe and not freezing mine.

I'm getting to like the taste of my MAF, but only with all that stevia and stuff in with it! It's like a yoghurt smoothie - a pleasant hint of refreshing sharpness (as opposed to the original taste of chilled vom...).