Bitter taste genetics – the relationship to tasting, liking, consumption and health (original) (raw)
* Corresponding authors
a School of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Newcastle, Brush Rd, Ourimbah, NSW, Australia
E-mail: mark.lucock@newcastle.edu.au
Fax: +(02) 4348 4145
Tel: +(02) 4348 4109
b Food and Nutrition Flagship, CSIRO, North Ryde, NSW, Australia
c School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy, University of Newcastle, Brush Rd, Ourimbah, NSW, Australia
d Teaching and Research Unit, Central Coast Local Health District, PO Box 361, Gosford, Australia
Abstract
Bitter is the most complex of human tastes, and is arguably the most important. Aversion to bitter taste is important for detecting toxic compounds in food; however, many beneficial nutrients also taste bitter and these may therefore also be avoided as a consequence of bitter taste. While many polymorphisms in TAS2R genes may result in phenotypic differences that influence the range and sensitivity of bitter compounds detected, the full extent to which individuals differ in their abilities to detect bitter compounds remains unknown. Simple logic suggests that taste phenotypes influence food preferences, intake and consequently health status. However, it is becoming clear that genetics only plays a partial role in predicting preference, intake and health outcomes, and the complex, pleiotropic relationships involved are yet to be fully elucidated.
You have access to this article
Please wait while we load your content... Something went wrong. Try again?
Article information
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/C4FO00539B
Article type
Review Article
Submitted
19 Jun 2014
Accepted
24 Sep 2014
First published
24 Sep 2014
Download Citation
Food Funct., 2014,5, 3040-3054
Author version available
Permissions
Bitter taste genetics – the relationship to tasting, liking, consumption and health
E. L. Beckett, C. Martin, Z. Yates, M. Veysey, K. Duesing and M. Lucock,Food Funct., 2014, 5, 3040DOI: 10.1039/C4FO00539B
To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.
If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.
If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.
Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.