Scottish researchers have highlighted a possible genetic cause for Western preference for fatty foods and alcohol.
According to Dr. Alasdair MacKenzie at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, a diet of dairy and alcohol may have been a matter of survival during long European winter months where life expectancy was maybe 40.
According to researchers, there is a genetic switch that regulates appetite and thirst, and the more the switch is ‘open,’ the greater the attraction to fatty foods and alcohol.
“It is possible that during the winter individuals with the weaker switch may not have survived as well in Europe as those with the stronger switch and as a result those in the west have evolved to favour a high fat and alcohol rich diet,” said MacKenzie.
The study, published in the respected Journal of Neuropsychopharmocology, also found that changes in the same ‘switch’ were linked to depression.
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