How people perceive and taste alcohol depends partly on genetic factors, and that influences whether they “like” and how much they alcoholic beverages they consume, according to a nutritionist and colleagues at Penn State‘s College of Agricultural Sciences.
They found that the sensations from sampled alcohol vary as a function of genetics. Their work focused on three chemosensory genes — two bitter-taste receptor genes known as TAS2R13 and TAS2R38 and a burn receptor gene, TRPV1. They say the research was also the first to consider whether variation in the burn receptor gene might influence alcohol sensations, which has not previously been linked to alcohol consumption. The study was small, DNA was collected via saliva samples for genetic analysis, but they believe the results are compelling. 130 people of various races, age 18 to 45, completed all four of the study’s tasting sessions.
People may differ in the sensations they experience from a food or beverage, and these perceptual differences have a biological basis, explained John Hayes, assistant professor of food science and director of Penn State’s Sensory Evaluation Center. Prior work done in his laboratory said that some people experience more bitterness and less sweetness from an alcoholic beverage, such as beer.
“In general, greater bitterness relates to lower liking, and because we generally tend to avoid eating or drinking things we don’t like, lower liking for alcoholic beverages associates with lower intake,” he said. “The burn receptor gene TRPV1 has not previously been linked to differences in intake, but we reasoned that this gene might be important as alcohol causes burning sensations in addition to bitterness.”
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