People may differ in the sensations they experience from a food or beverage, and these perceptual differences have a biological basis, explained John Hayes, assistant professor of food science and director of Penn State’s Sensory Evaluation Center. He noted that prior work done in his laboratory has shown that some people experience more bitterness and less sweetness from an alcoholic beverage, such as beer.

“In general, greater bitterness relates to lower liking, and because we generally tend to avoid eating or drinking things we don’t like, lower liking for alcoholic beverages associates with lower intake,” he said. “The burn receptor gene TRPV1 has not previously been linked to differences in intake, but we reasoned that this gene might be important as alcohol causes burning sensations in addition to bitterness.  MORE…