Nature is reporting that a gene which is involved in a receptor for bitter tastes can predict people’s liking for vegetables such as broccoli and sprouts.
It has been proposed that humans are particularly sensitive to bitterness as natural poisons often taste bitter.
Certain versions of this gene may make us especially sensitive, however. So sensitive, perhaps, that we dislike foods that are perfectly safe but have a bitter element.
There’s more information in a over at Eureka Alert and the original study is published in the journal Current Biology.
What I really want to see is a cookbook that looks at the shapes of these exceptionally bitter molecules and suggests ways to block them in a dish.