Genetic mutation may help people stop craving sugary foods: Study

Trying hard to control eating sugary foods but unable to? An international team of scientists has now found that a genetic mutation may enable people to cut down their sugar intake.

Led by scientists from the University of Nottingham in the UK, the study included researchers from Denmark, Greenland, Italy, and Spain. They found a gene — the sucrase-isomaltase (SI) gene — that makes people dislike sugary foods.

While “excess calories from sugar are an established contributor to obesity and type 2 diabetes,” the new findings, published in the journal Gastroenterology, may pave the way to target the SI gene to selectively help people reduce their sugar intake.

The study showed that people without the SI gene may have a hard time digesting sugary foods, making them dislike it. The gene is also associated with irritable bowel syndrome — a common functional disorder, said the researchers.