Europeans' sweet tooth may have been survival trait


	Europeans' sweet tooth may have been survival trait

valann 47

6-28-2009 2:32 AM

177 views

tags:

sugar, sweet toothed, europe, genes

valann 47 says:

There's me thinking I'm just a pig.

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/958ac746-df89-4fc2-b029-2a1d4532d4cc/DCE5CA62-3A1E-4332-A513-DF347130FD6F/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17382-europeans-sweet-tooth-may-have-been-survival-trait.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=health" href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17382-europeans-sweet-tooth-may-have-been-survival-trait.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=health" style="font-size: 11px;">www.newscientist.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17382-europeans-sweet-tooth-may-have-been-survival-trait.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=health"><P class="infuse">Sweet-toothed Brits have one less excuse for taking their morning tea with several spoons of sugar. They and other Europeans are among the most sugar-sensitive people in the world, a new genetic analysis concludes.</p> <P class="infuse">The vast majority of people in the UK, France, Italy and Russia boast a tandem of genetic variations in a sugar-sensing <A href="http://www.newscientist.com/topic/genetics" alt="gene" omd="zodJump('http://widgets.zibb.com/images/_jump.gif?tag=InfusionJS&url=http:%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Ftopic%2Fgenetics&gsid=gene&entitytypeid=kw&lid=http://www.newscientist.com/topic/genetics&title=gene&intref=infusion&variantName=gene&zodid=96')" class="infusionLink">gene</A> that allows them to detect trace levels of sweetness.</p> <P class="infuse">Around the world, populations that live at northern latitudes carry these genetic variations at far higher frequencies than tropical-living peoples,</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17382-europeans-sweet-tooth-may-have-been-survival-trait.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=health">Although the gene variants were commonest in Europeans, they were also widespread in Japanese, Palestinian, Han Chinese and other Middle Eastern and Asian populations. Low-sensitivity variations were most prevalent among the several different African populations that the team examined.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17382-europeans-sweet-tooth-may-have-been-survival-trait.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=health">An even bigger puzzle is why the low-sensitivity variations are more common among Africans. "The straight answer is we don't know</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/DCE5CA62-3A1E-4332-A513-DF347130FD6F/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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