Vegetarian Star

Michelle Obama "Ladies Home Journal"

Michelle Obama‘s interview with Ladies Home Journal available on the stands August 10th, reveals her suspicion of a “dislike beet gene” she shares with the president.

‘I am a believer there is a beet gene,” she said. “People who love beets love them and people who hate beets can’t stand them. Neither the President nor I have the beet gene.”

A study examining the food preference of twins found liking fruits and vegetables is somewhat influenced by genes, but environmental factors also play a big role. But judging a veggie to taste bitter may be a case of genetics of the tongue receptors.

Some people are thought to carry a gene for receptors on the tongue that may cause them to be more sensitive to bitter chemicals like phenylthiocarbamide (PTC). A class of similar chemical compounds exist in vegetables like raw broccoli and cauliflower called glucosinolates, so it was thought tongue receptors may play a similar role in liking vegetables.  This conclusion was uncertain because the taste of the compounds could be masked by other chemicals. Maybe the key is to drench the broccoli in some kind of sauce, covering up the nasty tasting chemicals?

However, in a study in Current Biology, people with two copies of the gene sensitive to these bitter chemicals rated the glucosinolate vegetables 60% more bitter than the people carrying two insensitive copies of the gene. The group rated the vegetables lacking glucosinolates as equally bitter.

Thankfully, Michelle doesn’t possess genes for hating all vegetables, as she recently went on a vegetable cleanse for two days to clean her palate.

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