This is scientific American 60 second science. I'm Christopher Intagiyata.

Thanksgiving is of course really all about the side dishes.

And alongside mashed potatoes and the yams, brussels sprouts are a common side on many

Thanksgiving tables. Not that they're equally appreciated, but science is here to save turkey day

with a way to mitigate the sprouts intense

slightly bitter flavor and here's a secret. Take swigs of red wine as you eat

them. Like any human research study or perhaps more importantly for one in which you'll be forcing people to eat brussels sprouts,

the project started off with approval from an ethics committee.

Researchers then serve 28 volunteers slices of microwaved brussels sprouts and ask them to rate the intensity of their

flavor on a scale of 1 to 10. They then alternated their bites with red wine, gravy,

or bottled water and rated the flavor again.

Turns out the subject scored the sprouts as significantly less intense on the flavor scale

after a sip of wine, 3.5 out of 10 compared to 5.5.

Maybe the scientist's right because the astringency of wine interferes with the saliva's ability to deliver bitter

flavor molecules to the taste buds.

The results are in the Journal of Texture Studies, which is a real publication.

Unfortunately for the kids at the table, gravy and water did not do the taste trick,

but for adults who choose to use this

Thanksgiving hack, please imbibe responsibly, though it's hard to imagine you'll

be eating that many brussel sprouts. Thanks for listening.

For Scientific American 60 Second Science, I'm Christopher and D'Aljata.