Love coffee? Need coffee? Your genes may have something to do with it!

 

Do genetics make you want more coffee? One nutritionist thinks so…Via Public Radio International:

Marilyn Cornelis, a nutrition scientist at Northwestern University, looks at the numbers behind all this coffee consumption. What she’s found is that genes play a major role.

“Ultimately what our genes are telling us that those who can quickly metabolize caffeine are consuming more,”

Cornelis explains. “Partly because they’re obviously metabolizing it quickly, but also in order to maintain that drive or that psychostimulant effect that most of us connect with caffeine, they need to consume more.

”That means if you need four cups of Ethiopian Yirgacheffe to make it through work, you just might have the genetic makeup that means you metabolize caffeine quickly.But it’s not just about genetics, Cornelis explains. Geographic location also matters when it comes to how much coffee you’re putting away.

The highest intakes are usually in northern Europe with the Dutch averaging 880 cups per year.

If you’re wondering whether consuming five Venti lattes every morning will negatively affect your health…

Cornelis has taken a look at that too:“For many years, coffee had a bad rep. It was connected to high stress levels and potentially heart disease, [and it was] very common for a physician to possibly recommend that you cut back on coffee. However, there’s really no strong evidence to support those recommendations. And more recent work… more accurate studies are suggesting that there are probably more benefits to coffee than we realized.”

Full Article Here: Love coffee? Need coffee? Your genes may have something to do with it. | Public Radio International

©2015 Ben Gangloff

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