In a breakthrough study, researchers identified nearly 500 genes influencing what we eat, offering a new approach to personalized nutrition and preventing disease.

In an extensive investigation into the relationship between our genes and our diet, scientists have identified nearly 500 genes that seem to play a significant role in determining our food choices. This discovery opens up the potential for utilizing an individual’s genetic information to formulate personalized nutritional plans aimed at boosting health and warding off disease.

“Some genes we identified are related to sensory pathways — including those for taste, smell, and texture — and may also increase the reward response in the brain,” explained the study’s principal investigator, Joanne Cole, PhD, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Informatics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. “Because some of these genes may have clear paths toward influencing whether someone likes a food or not, they could potentially be used to create sensory genetic profiles for fine-tuning a person’s dietary recommendations based on foods they like to eat.”

To conduct this study, they used data from the UK Biobank, an extensive database of information from half a million people. They carried out a phenome-wide association study (PheWAS), a technique used to discover connections between gene variants and a range of human traits and behaviors, including food intake. Through this, they identified certain genes that were more closely linked to dietary habits than to any health or lifestyle aspect.

“The foods we choose to eat are largely influenced by environmental factors such as our culture, socioeconomic status, and food accessibility,” said Cole. “Because genetics plays a much smaller role in influencing dietary intake than all the environmental factors, we need to study hundreds of thousands of individuals to detect genetic influences amid the environmental factors. The data necessary to do this hasn’t been available until recently.”

The process of pinpointing genes that affect diet is challenging, as people’s food choices are intertwined with numerous other factors, including health aspects like high cholesterol and body weight, and even socio-economic status. In this study, the researchers employed computational methods to distinguish the direct impact of genetic variants on diet from indirect effects, such as a gene influencing diabetes, which would subsequently require the individual to limit sugar intake.

The broad and detailed genetic, health, and socio-economic data present in the UK Biobank allowed them to test individual genetic variants against thousands of traits and discard indirect gene variants that were more strongly associated with other factors like diabetes.

The study revealed that about 300 genes directly influenced the intake of certain foods, while almost 200 genes were associated with broader dietary patterns, grouping various food items together, like total fish or fruit consumption.

“The study showed that dietary patterns tend to have more indirect genetic effects, meaning they were correlated with a lot of other factors,” added Cole. “This shows how important it is to not study dietary patterns in a vacuum, because the eating pattern’s impact on human health may be completely mediated or confounded by other factors.”

In the near term, Cole plans to delve deeper into the function of the newly discovered diet-related genes and search for additional genes that directly shape food preferences. She aims to undertake various translational research projects based on these results. For instance, she is interested in examining whether tailoring the taste profile of a diet plan for weight loss to a person’s genetic profile could improve their adherence to the diet.

These newfound understandings could also be used to customize food to a person’s genetic makeup.

“If we know that a gene encoding an olfactory receptor in the nose increases a person’s liking of fruit and boosts the reward response in the brain, then molecular studies of this receptor could be used to identify natural or synthetic compounds that bind to it,” suggested Cole. “Then, we could see if adding one of those compounds to healthy foods makes those foods more appealing to that person.”

The findings will be presented by Cole at NUTRITION 2023, an annual event by the American Society for Nutrition, scheduled to take place from July 22-25 in Boston.

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