Author: Derek Beres / Source: Big Think
- A new study shows that humans with a genetic variant making them adverse to caffeine drink more coffee.
- The same is not true with other bitter flavors, such as PROP and quinine.
- Tea and alcohol drinkers did not produce the same results.
That human behavior is guided by seemingly counter-intuitive actions is well-founded.
The person that always talks about being trusting is often the least trustworthy; the one pronouncing unrequited love demands the most sacrifices; those who discuss spirituality at every turn are likely to be morally dubious. How do we know what we really want? Usually, by investigating the opposite of what we claim.Psychology and biology are not separate domains; they each influence the other, all the time. So it shouldn’t surprise us that substances we are most averse to are also the ones we crave most. At least that’s the finding of a new study published in the Nature journal, Scientific Reports: Coffee drinkers with the highest sensitivity to the bitter taste of caffeine consume the most coffee.
Of the five major flavor profiles, bitter is supposed to be avoided. Bitterness is a signal of toxicity. Of course, hormesis: low doses of a toxic agent produce beneficial effects. Cruciferous vegetables, such as cauliflower and Brussels sprouts, are healthy even though they are slightly toxic; by affecting liver enzymes, they decrease the bioavailability of certain drugs and, when consuming high amounts, may increase allergic reactions.
Yet cruciferous vegetables are also healthy. They also happen to be delicious—though,…
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