Genetic and environmental influences on food preferences in adolescence

Andrea D Smith,Alison Fildes,Lucy Cooke,Moritz Herle,Nicholas Shakeshaft,Robert Plomin,Clare Llewellyn

doi:10.3945/ajcn.116.133983

Andrea D Smith, Alison Fildes + Show 5 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3945/ajcn.116.133983

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Abstract

Background: Food preferences vary substantially among adults and children. Twin studies have established that genes and aspects of the shared family environment both play important roles in shaping children’s food preferences. The transition from childhood to adulthood is characterized by large gains in independence, but the relative influences of genes and the environment on food preferences in late adolescence are unknown.Objective: The aim of this study was to quantify the contribution of genetic and environmental influences on food preferences in older adolescents.Design: Participants were 2865 twins aged 18–19 y from the TEDS (Twins Early Development Study), a large population-based cohort of British twins born during 1994–1996. Food preferences were measured by using a self-report questionnaire of 62 individual foods. Food items were categorized into 6 food groups (fruit, vegetables, meat or fish, dairy, starch foods, and snacks) by using factor analysis. Maximum likelihood structural equation modeling established genetic and environmental contributions to variations in preferences for each food group.Results: Genetic factors influenced a significant and substantial proportion of the variation in preference scores of all 6 food groups: vegetables (0.54; 95% CI: 0.47, 0.59), fruit (0.49; 95% CI: 0.43, 0.55), starchy foods (0.32; 95% CI: 0.24, 0.39), meat or fish (0.44; 95% CI: 0.38, 0.51), dairy (0.44; 95% CI: 0.37, 0.50), and snacks (0.43; 95% CI: 0.36, 0.49). Aspects of the environment that are not shared by 2 twins in a family explained all of the remaining variance in food preferences.Conclusions: Food preferences had a moderate genetic basis in late adolescence, in keeping with findings in children. However, by this older age, the influence of the shared family environment had disappeared, and only aspects of the environment unique to each individual twin influenced food preferences. This finding suggests that shared environmental experiences that influence food preferences in childhood may not have effects that persist into adulthood.

Highlights

1 The full ACE model was nested within the saturated model 2 Sub-models were nested within the full ACE model 3 Abbreviations; - 2LL: -2 times log-likelihood of data, Δ -2LL: Change in the -2 times log likelihood of data, df: degrees of freedom, AIC: Akaike Information Criterion
1 The full ADE model was nested within the saturated model 2 Sub-models were nested within the full ADE model 3 Abbreviations; - 2LL: -2 times log-likelihood of data, Δ -2LL: Change in the -2 times log likelihood of data, df: degrees of freedom, AIC: Akaike Information Criterion 4 excludes observations for celery liking from individuals self-reporting an allergy against celery. 5 excludes observations for strawberries, apples and oranges for individuals self-reporting a strawberry, apple or orange allergy. 6 excludes observations for all meat items from self-reported pescetarians, vegetarians and vegan
1 The full ACE model was nested within the saturated model 2 Sub-models were nested within the full ACE model 3 Abbreviations; - 2LL: -2 times log-likelihood of data, Δ -2LL: Change in the -2 times log likelihood of data, df: degrees of freedom, AIC: Akaike Information Criterion 4 excludes observations for celery liking from individuals self-reporting an allergy against celery. 5 excludes observations for strawberries, apples and oranges for individuals self-reporting a strawberry, apple or orange allergy. 6 excludes observations for all meat items from self-reported pescetarians, vegetarians and vegan