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Taste perception and food choices
The goal for this 2012 study was to uncover the connection between genetic predisposition, dietary habits, and feeding disorders. Scientists analyzed saliva samples of the participants to examine the genetic variations in a specific bitter receptor. The study then assessed whether there was a correlation between genetic variations in this receptor with food choices. The plan was to measure taste sensitivity in healthy adults and their children, and to evaluate the taste sensitivity of children with obesity and those affected by functional gastrointestinal diseases. Adults, parents, and children were recruited from the general population in southern Italy. A difference in taste sensitivity was discovered between the children and the adults. Moreover, the prevalence rate of supertasters was much higher in the children than the adults. This trend was also observed when comparing mothers and their child even though they shared the same diplotypes (subsets of all genotypes on homologous chromosome pairs). Supertaster status was associated with having identical taste alleles among adults, whereas most of the children showed two different alleles in the same haplotype. Furthermore, a higher proportion of taster children avoided bitter vegetables altogether compared with taster adults. There was another relationship found among just the boys between taster status and body mass index. In conclusion, greater sensitivity to 6-propyl-2-thiouracil (the assessment of bitterness sensitivity) predicted lower preferences for vegetables in children. This signifies the extent to which genetic predisposition influences food choices. [NPID: food choice, genetics, dietary habits, diet, genes, children, perception, taste perception, taste sensitivity, bitterness, bitter taste, bitter sensitivity, Italy, Italians, obesity]
Year: 2012
