The subtleties of taste - Massive Danish Research

Who would tell that "Girls have a better sense of taste than boys", or that "every third child of school age prefers soft drinks which are not sweet". These are just a couple of facts which a massive Danish research in schoolchildren was able to determine. This research also demonstrated that "Children and young people love fish and do not think of themselves as being fussy eaters"; "Boys have a sweeter tooth than girls. And teenagers taste differently".

Last September, 8.900 Danish students participated in one of the biggest researches ever related with taste and taste preferences in children and teenagers, conducted by Danish Science Communication and The Faculty of Life Sciences (LIFE) at University of Copenhagen.

All the participating groups of students were sent a special kit, which included taster samples and detailed instructions. The purpose of such tests was to "quantify the ability of children and young people to discover and recognise sweet and sour tastes at varying intensities, to establish which sourness or sweetness they prefer, how many taste buds they have and, finally, the children answered a number of questions on their eating habits and fussiness over food". Surprisingly, the results are very clear and have a high quality.

Now, what new facts has this study brought us:

• Girls recognise tastes more easily and accurately than boys

They are better at recognising all concentrations of both sweet and sour tastes. The difference is not dramatic, but it is quite clear. It is also a known fact that women generally have a finer sense of taste than men. However, the experiment showed that boys and girls have largely the same number of taste buds, which means that what makes the difference is the way in which boys and girls process taste impressions.

• One third of the children would rather choose non-sweet food

The pupils were instruted to rate different variants of the same soft drink, blindfolded, and one third prefered those without sugar or very little sugar. In other words, soft drinks for children and young people do not always have to contain a lot of sugar.

• Boys are more into the extremes

Unlike girls, boys like more extreme flavours, giving top marks to the sourest samples. Furthermore, the research was also able to say that boys, and not girls, have a sweeter tooth.

• I do like fish mom!

When tasting the fish samples, 70% of the children declared they liked what they were tasting. This proves that the bulk of teenagers and children actually like fish, despite what most of us think.

• Wake up!

This study revealed that at 13-14 years teenagers become markedly more sesitive to sour tastes, hence more able to enjoy and experience the subtleties of taste.

So, wouldn't it be a nice time for the food industry to broaden their horizons concerning clhindren and teenagers food preferences?


Adapted from Genengnews website


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E. Coli can create high-energy biofuel

Since 1970s it is possible to alter cell's genome by inserting foreign DNA into a cell. This recombinant technology has been widely used in medicine. The most meaningful example is the production of insulin. This technology allows to insert the human gene for a determined protein in E. Coli (for example) and this bacteria started to produced the protein with is own machinery.

Recently, some researchers took one step further. They aim to designed one "assembly line" to produce a high-energy alcohol. This alcohol as they want to make it is not naturally synthesized and that is why this is quiet an achievment.


The process of producing a alcohol is also far more complex than producing a protein as insulin. In the cell there are several proteins involved in this process and they aim to extend it to in the end have a more energetic alcohol.


Researchers were already capable of producing alcohols containing between five and eight carbons whereas ethanol only has two. Larger molecules are more energetic which is the big goal here.

Physical catalysts can make this process too but biologically the process is more controlled and can happen at lower temperatures and pressures. Biologically, once the correct genes are designed (the difficult part) and in place in the bacterial genome it is just necessary to the feed the bacterias; they do the rest of the work. This high-energy molecule can substitute petroleum as a raw material for different industries suppressing our fuel necessities.

Amish gene protects their heart

Researchers investigating heart disease factors in an Amish community found some of them had a gene variant that seemed to keep down levels of triglycerides or blood fats, and may also be involved in keeping arteries clear of blockages since only those who had it were relatively free of arterial calcification.

Different people have different responses to fatty foods. Unused calories become triglycerides, which increase the risk of heart disease and stroke, and some people have much higher levels of these blood fats. Although diet is an obvious factor, some genes are also thought to play a major role. For example, when mice don't have the AP0C3 (short for Apolipoprotein C-III) gene they have low levels of triglycerides, regardless of what they eat. And coronary artery disease is thought to be related to this gene because it inhibits hydrolysis of triglycerides (their elimination).

800 healthy adult male and female members of the Old Order Amish in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania took part in a genome-wide association study where they had short term exposures to a range of environmental factors, such as eating a high salt diet, and then underwent a range of clinical exams.

This Amish community is quite cut off from the outside world and members tend to marry each other, creating an interesting population for geneticists because of the relatively higher proportions of people with the same gene variants compared to the world at large, making it easier to search for particular disease genes.

About 5 per cent of the Amish had one of their inherited AP0C3 genes switched off (they were heterozygous), which meant they had only half the AP0C3 expression of most other people.

They found that compared to non-carriers, the carriers of the switched off AP0C3 variant:

• Had lower levels of triglycerides (fasting and post-prandial), higher levels of HDL cholesterol (the so-called "good" cholesterol) and lower levels of LDL cholesterol (the so-called "bad" cholesterol), and


• Were less likely to have coronary artery calcification, an early sign of blocked arteries or atherosclerosis.

The researchers said these results suggested that "lifelong deficiency" of AP0C3 had a "cardioprotective effect". However, the Amish population is unique, so the mutation they found is probably not a mutation that you're going to find in other populations.



Adapted from Medical News Today website

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