Many toxic foods have a bitter taste, which can make people want to spit them out. But researchers at the University of California - Irvine say the bitterness can also trigger the body to slow digestion, giving it more time to expel the food from the stomach to get rid of the toxin.

The system of receptors also triggers the production of a hormone that makes people feel full to keep them from eating more of the toxic food, researchers said.

The discovery could help scientists fight cancer and diabetes, according to a news release.

The work was performed on mice, not people. But Researcher Timothy Osborne said he expects it to hold for people.

"We have evolved mechanisms to combat the ingestion of toxins in our food," Osborne said. "This provides a framework for an entirely new area of research on how our bodies respond to what is present in our diets."

He also said that the mechanism could explain why groups of people taste certain foods differently.

"One group of people may think something tastes great and can metabolize it just fine, but a group from the outside may think it tastes horrible and get sick," Osborne said. "The first group likely adapted to the food through a change in the expression and pattern of their dietary sensing molecules."