Did You Inherit Your Sweet Tooth?

"No thanks, I'm not a dessert person."

I don't know about you, but not much else inspires me to hate someone as much as that statement does. Who doesn't like dessert?! Why are some people able to resist the bowl of Hershey Kisses on the conference table but they eat an entire bag of Sour Patch Kids in one sitting?

Scientist have discovered that some humans have genes that make them more sensitive to bitter compounds, suggesting that there might be differences in how the other four tastes - sweet, sour, salt, and umami - are genetically wired. Image credit

The study of perception of sweetness was done comparing identical and fraternal twins with non-twin siblings and unpaired twins. Twins are helpful for studying genetic factors since identical twins share almost all their genes and fraternal twins share about half.

The researchers at Monell Chemical Senses Center gave the twins and other subjects two natural sugars (glucose and fructose) and two artificial sweeteners (aspartame and NHDC) and then asked them to rate the perceived intensity of the solution.

The study found that a single set of genes account for about 30 percent of the variance in sweet taste perception between people for both natural and artificial sugars.

Much to my dismay (who doesn't want to blame genes for bad habits), the findings do not mean that people who have a weaker ability to taste sweet necessarily dislike sugar or vice versa. The researchers still need to see whether the results have implications on people's food behavior. This is a challenge to study because researchers rarely get an accurate picture of what a person eats every day.

Danielle Reed, the lead researcher for this study, says the variation in taste may have to do with the fact that humans evolved in so many different geographies and around so many different types of food.

These days, I would love to be more sensitive to sugar since it's found in everything and has become a serious health risk. But as I sit and enjoy a hot cocoa, I think I'll just wait for my genes to change. J

The full study appears in the journal Twin Research and Human Genetics.