Hate eating certain vegetables? It could be down to your genes, say US scientists who have done some new research. Inheriting two copies of the unpleasant taste gene provides a “ruin-your-day level of bitterness” to foods like broccoli and sprouts, they say.
It could explain why some people find it difficult to include enough vegetables in their diet, they suggest. The gene may also make beer, coffee and dark chocolate taste unpleasant. Scientists are calling folks with vegetable prejudice ‘super-tasters’ (I’d call them ‘vegecists’ personally), but before you think about donning a red cape and blue spandex, think again. Super-tasters do not experience more enjoyable sensations when eating, instead finding themselves hating every minute of it due to heightened intolerance of bitterness.
Everyone inherits two copies of a taste gene called TAS2R38. It encodes for a protein in the taste receptors on the tongue which allows us to taste bitterness. People, who inherit two copies of a variant of the gene TAS2R38, called AVI, are not sensitive to bitter tastes from certain chemicals. Those with one copy of AVI and another called PAV perceive bitter tastes of these chemicals, but not to such an extreme degree as individuals with two copies of PAV, often called “super-tasters”, who find the same foods exceptionally bitter.
