How your brain determines what foods you are more likely to eat

What foods you eat and how well you follow certain diets can be written into your DNA.

Being a vegetarian may be determined by your genes, scientists have suggested.

Researchers from Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois, analyzed the genetics of 350,000 people to investigate whether genetics played a role in following a vegetarian diet.

Data includes DNA from 5,000 strict vegetarians and 300,000 non-vegetarians.

They found three genes that were strongly linked to a vegetarian diet, while 31 others were possibly linked to a plant-based lifestyle. They found that vegetarians were more likely than non-vegetarians to have different variations of these genes.

Researchers said the genes were largely linked to the digestion of lipids, or fats, suggesting they helped vegetarians better get essential fats from plant sources and kept them from returning to meat.

Dr. Nabeel Yaseen, an emeritus professor of pathology who led the study, said CNN: ‘What we can say at this point is that genetics plays an important role in vegetarianism and that some people are genetically better suited to a vegetarian diet than others.

‘A large proportion of self-proclaimed vegetarians actually indicate that they consume meat products when completing detailed questionnaires.

“This suggests that many people who would like to become vegetarian cannot, and our data suggests that genetics is at least part of the reason.”

The genes discovered by scientists may be involved in coding enzymes that have the right shape to break down fats from plants. These have a different shape than enzymes that break down animal fats.

Researchers said this would prevent nutrient deficiencies in the body, which could have negative effects on parts of the body such as the brain, which is made up of 60 percent fat and needs lipids to maintain structure and communication between cells. to support.

A deficiency can lead to poor memory and learning ability and a higher risk of depression and anxiety.

In their article, published in PLOS Onethey compared the ability to break down fats from plants with people who can easily digest caffeine or alcohol.

They said that those who could not break down these substances as well were more likely to experience side effects and as a result would consume less.

The variations on the ‘vegetarian genes’ – called TMEM241, RIOK3, NPC1 and RMC1 – were not present in meat-eaters.

The research was based on data from the UK Biobank, a large database containing the habits and genetics of 500,000 individuals.

This article defined vegetarians as those who had not eaten any animal products in the past year, including seafood or products that use animal meat, such as lard.

Vegetarians appeared to be mainly women, younger in age, with lower body mass and lower socio-economic status.

In addition to the three genes that are strongly linked, the results also showed 31 genes that the researchers said may be linked to a vegetarian diet.

Most of these were also related to the way the body breaks down fats.

Plants and meat contain fats of different complexity, which means they require different enzymes to break them down.

Dr. Yaseen added: ‘We speculate that this may be related to genetic differences in lipid metabolism and how this affects brain function, but more research is needed to investigate this hypothesis.’

About six percent of Americans – or 19 million people – are vegetarian, surveys show.

But many need to take essential supplements – such as vitamin B12, zinc and iron – to avoid any adverse health effects from their meatless diet.