Crave Sugar? Maybe It's in Your Genes

[Cattledog]

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/crave-sugar-maybe-its-in-your-genes/?WT.mc_id=SA_TW_HLTH_NEWS

Why do we yearn for the explosive gustatory delight of sugar? Neural feedback loops, sensory pleasures and environmental factors like poor sleep all amplify our desire for a sugar rush. But new research suggests some of us—much more than others—may also be genetically attuned to crave such sweet sustenance.

An international team scoured the genes of more than 6,500 Danish people taking part in a large health study on heart disease. They found those who harbored one of two particular variants of the FGF21 gene were roughly 20 percent more likely to enjoy and seek out sugary substances. “This study gives us insight into the molecular basis of the sweet tooth—that’s probably the heart of it for me: Why do you have a sweet tooth at a biological level?” says Matthew Gillum, co-lead author and a metabolism researcher at the University of Copenhagen’s Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research. The findings were published Tuesday in Cell Metabolism.

FGF21 provides the instructions for making a hormone by the same name that is associated with food regulation in rodents and nonhuman primates. Yet this new work suggests FGF21 may modulate some appetites in humans, too. What’s more, this work also suggests the liver—the organ that secretes the FGF21 hormone and controls insulin resistance—may play a larger role in snack management than previously known as it produces this hormone and communicates with the brain.

[Laffy Kat]

1. I love sugar so much that when I just read "Danish people" in your OP...

I wanted a Danish. Surprisingly, I am not overweight or diabetic, although I suppose it's just a matter of time.