Numerous chefs are successfully serving up meat-free dishes without sacrificing flavour. But switching to a vegetarian diet doesn’t come easy to everyone. In fact, scientists are now suggesting that our genetic makeup could play a role in our ability to forego meat.
In research recently published in the journal “Plos One”, Dr Nabeel Yaseen from the United States’ Northwestern University explained that “while religious and moral considerations play a major role in the motivation to adopt a vegetarian diet, our data suggest that the ability to adhere to such a diet is constrained by genetics”.
And it could all be to do with lipids, specifically the fact that some people are unable to do without certain components found in the fatty compounds from meat. The researchers identified several genes as being associated with vegetarianism, including some involved in lipid metabolism and others in brain function.
“One area in which plant products differ from meat is complex lipids,” Yaseen explained. “My speculation is there may be lipid components present in meat that some people need.
“And maybe people whose genetics favour vegetarianism are able to synthesise these components endogenously.”
He cautioned, however, that “this is mere speculation and much more work needs to be done to understand the physiology of vegetarianism”.
To reach these conclusions, the genetic data of 5,324 strict vegetarians, eating no fish, poultry or red meat, were compared with 329,455 meat-eating control subjects.
The composition of meals eaten between 2006 and 2019 was analysed to provide as many elements of comparison as possible.
The scientists explained that “these results support a role for genetics in choosing a vegetarian diet and open the door to future studies aimed at further elucidating the physiologic pathways involved in vegetarianism”.
This is not the first time that a potential link between genetics and food preferences has been established. Previous research, published in the journal “Nature”, sheds some light on why certain people dislike coriander.
Two genes were identified – one related to odour appreciation, the other responsible for the link between taste and smell – that could explain why some people find this common herb to have a soapy flavour.