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Genes may partly influence your eating habits, study finds

Dietary indices found heritable food and nutrient patterns among female twins

19-Jan-2021

Key points from article :

Your food intake patterns are partly under genetic control.

Researchers analysed food questionnaire responses from 2,590 female twins, using nine commonly used dietary indices.

Studied the degree of similarity among identical and non-identical twins.

Identical twins were more likely to have similar scores across nine dietary indices compared with non-identical twin pairs.

This was the case even when other factors were taken into account, such as body mass index (BMI) and exercise levels.

"Our study represents the first comprehensive investigation of the contributions of genetic and environmental factors to the variation in eating behaviour," - Massimo Mangino, Senior author.

Future research will need to look at dietary indices across a more varied group of people.

Study by King's College London published in the journal Twin Research and Human Genetics.

Mentioned in this article:

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King's College London

Public research university

Massimo Mangino

Head of bioinformatics and Honorary Senior Lecturer at King’s College London

Twin Research and Human Genetics

Peer-reviewed scientific journal

Topics mentioned on this page:
Diet, Longevity Genes