Do you make faces when you prove something bitter? A new study has established a link between food sensitivity and, among other diseases, bipolar disturbance.
If you have aversion to bitter flavors, it is considered a “SUPERDEGUSTOR”. About 25% of people have the genetic code that triggers this sensitivity.
This appears to be a superpower. However, a study last week in the European Journal of Nutrition revealed that this idiosyncrasy is linked to “Negative health results”.
University of Queensland researchers discovered a surprising connection between people who have two functional copies of the gene Tas2r38 and the probability of disabled renal function and/or prevalence of bipolar disturbance.
As New Atlas explains, we all have two copies of the bitter taste gene, one inherited from each parent, but only about 20 to 25% of the population has both copies like “functional” DNA.
Within this group, the researchers identified Three small mutations – Known as Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) – that increase the likelihood of being affected by kidney and mental health diseases.
“The TAS2R38 controls the intensity with which we feel the bitter in foods such as broccoli and beefies-making them extremely bitter for some people,” the research leader explained to New Atlas, Daniel Hwang.
“Two copies of the gene are transported, it is highly sensitive to bitter chemical compounds such as phenylofiCarbamide and propyivhouracil,” he added.
TAS2R38 genotype has also been associated with the risk of various chronic diseases, such as Obesity, cardiometabolic diseases and colorrectal cancerpossibly through its influence on food intake.
In this study, the researchers focused on these three “variants of interest” within functional pairs of TAS2R38 genes, using a sample of 445,779 UK Biobank database individuals, aged 37 to 73 years, and 161,625 participants in large genomic association studies.
As scientists detail, the strongest association in phenomic exploratory analysis was with bipolar disturbance, and the bitter alleles were associated with a 10% increase in the likelihood of having this conditionin a study with 7,647 cases and 27,303 controls, ”the investigators noted.
The second strongest association in exploratory analysis was among the sensitive alleles to bitter and higher levels of creatinine in serum, a renal toxicity biomarker and deficient renal function. Notably, bitter-sensitive alleles were also nominally associated with chronic kidney diseases and various kidney health markers, including urinary proline betaine levels, glomerular filtration rate, non-albumin protein in serum and glucose levels 2 hours after oral glucose tolerance test.
“People with the gene are more sensitive to salty flavor – they are less likely to add extra salt because foods already know sufficiently salty,” Hwang said.
The study does not prove, however, a cause-effect relationship-but this connection is added to the growing body of evidence that these bitter taste recipients have more complex biological impacts than simply helping humans hunters-recollector to avoid potential vegetable toxins.
Important alert mechanism
The recetors of bitter taste (known as TAS2Rs) can be found throughout the body, in the lungs, intestines, urinary tract and mouth.
And there is a evolutionary reason for its preservation – Bitterness is often a typical characteristic of poisons, so avoiding bitter flavor foods acts as a innate security system.
Recently, new investigations have revealed how these bitter taste recipients – of which about 25 different were identified – can actually play a role in healthy aging.
