Your Sweet Tooth Gene

Do you have a sweet tooth? Can’t resist the urge to have at least one piece of chocolate a day? It may have something to do with a sweet gene!  That’s right, there’s even a gene that controls whether you like sweet things or not.

In this article, Researchers Stalk “Sweet Tooth” Gene, researchers may have found a gene on chromosome 4 that influences the way you taste sweet things and even if you prefer milk chocolate over semi-sweet. You can now blame your parents for all that sugar you devour. You can tell your doctor that you can’t help it, it’s your sweet tooth gene.

Control Over Your Genes

However, let’s think about how much control you can have over a gene. Of course, with genes that predispose you to a disease, you can make changes to your lifestyle and environment to try to prevent it. With a gene like the sweet tooth, it may easier to control. The craving may be strong because of your sweet tooth gene but your decision to give in isn’t controlled by the gene.

Sweet Gene and Pleasure Connection

Another thought is how this sweet tooth gene influences the pleasure area of your brain. If the sweet gene makes you like chocolate, it probably makes you happy to consume it, so is there a correlation between this sweet tooth gene and depression? If you stop eating chocolate completely, you will most likely feel sad, so the connection is something to think about…what do you think?

(Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/darwinbell/309314636/)

July 2nd, 2009 by Marcelina Hardy | Posted in Genetics and Health | (1)