Author Archives: ArmitaPayombarnia

You might be able to blame your coffee or tea addiction on your genes!

  Image1 .      Are you a coffee lover(left) or a tea lover(right)?   

Coffee, Tea, or Alcohol?

As university students, we spend a good chunk of our money on coffee, tea, and alcohol. These 3 drinks have been controversial topics as they have both beneficial and adverse health effects.

We all have a preferred drink among these 3, and there’s no guarantee that 5 of your closest friends will have the same preference as you. You might have noticed that one of your friends is less sensitive to caffeine’s bitter taste than you. Or, you are a heavier tea drinker than your friend. Well, there is no need to sweat it anymore, because a new study, led by Jue-sheng Ong and Daniel Hwang and published in Scientific Reports, examined around 400,000 people in the UK to see if there is a correlation between a person’s bitter taste perception, drink of choice and their genetic markers.

Image2 .        A new study explains why some people love coffee but others think it tastes disgusting.

Coffee!

There’s some good news from their findings. If you are a heavy coffee drinker (>4 cups/day) and the bitter taste of coffee doesn’t bug you, then you can thank or blame your genes. So the next time someone points out that you drink too much coffee, you can tell them that it isn’t your fault that your genes have an increased sensitivity to the bitter flavour of caffeine, thus making you 20% more likely than the average person to be a heavy coffee drinker.

Tea!

Do you drink more than 5 cups of tea per day? Do you prefer tea over coffee? That is because you are more sensitive to the two chemicals (quinine and propylthiouracil) common in tea. This sensitivity is a result of the presence of receptors for those chemicals on your genes. Which makes you 4-9% more likely than the average person to be a heavy tea drinker.

So what?

The researchers suggest that coffee drinkers enjoy the bitterness of caffeine because of the buzz the chemical provides, but tea drinkers do not enjoy the bitterness of the chemicals in those drinks. Therefore, heavy tea drinkers are technically those whose genes have rejected coffee.

What about alcohol?

Unlike tea, for alcohol, a higher intensity of the propylthiouracil chemical reaction resulted in a lower consumption of alcohol. Ignoring the other side effects of alcohol consumption, alcohol’s elicit bitterness in humans might explain why our daily consumption behaviour of coffee and tea doesn’t apply to alcohol (i.e. why we don’t drink alcohol like we might drink coffee and tea daily).

Controversial Topic

While this 2018 paper looked at the underlying genetic reason(s) for our coffee, tea, and alcohol consumption preferences, coffee and tea have always been controversial topics. Their pros and cons have lead to numerous scientific articles, videos, and news articles being published.

An example of a YouTube video on the pros and cons of coffee and tea. (Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csSq4emMwGk)

The coffee vs. tea debate is so big that even famous YouTubers are now discussing it. (Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOGXe7GN2eQ)

 

 

Science says that there is a direct correlation between hugs received and our mood at the end of the day.

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A pure hug!

According to a study done at the Department of Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University and published on Wednesday, October 3rd 2018 in PLOS One, a simple hug can increase positive feelings and reduce negative ones on days when people experience emotional conflict.

While there are people who are not big on hugs, most people like receiving hugs from loved ones. For those of us who love receiving and/or giving hugs, we know they feel good and at times we look for any excuse to hug our loved ones. Furthermore, hugs make us feel like we are cared about, but at times we feel awkward and wonder if the other person enjoys, or even benefits, from our hugs. New research shows that hugs can cheer us up and possibly take the edge off of interpersonal conflicts.

The study looked at the social interactions of 404 adults over two weeks. They interviewed the participants by phone every night for two weeks to assess their daily interpersonal interactions. They asked participants about their social activities and partners, experiences of interpersonal conflict, and whether they had received a hug, and their mood that day.

Participants reported having fewer negative feelings and more positive ones on days they received hugs than on days they experienced conflict but not hugs. This trend was found to be true regardless of their gender, race, marital status, and age. It is important to note that women reported more hugs than men.

Previous research also suggests that physical touch (e.g. hugs) prompt positive changes such as the release of oxytocin, a mood-enhancing hormone, as well as a reduction in stress and boost in heart and brain activity.

Huggies

Companies, such as Huggies, use such research as their backbone for advertising their products. A 30 second Huggies commercial from 2015 uses research similar to Murphy’s to sell their product by mentioning the importance and benefits of hugging and how their diapers hug a baby’s body just like his/her mom’s. At the end of the advertisement, the link provided to viewers is “NoBabyUnhugged.ca”.

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Over the past few decades, the importance of hugging and the benefits that one gets from hugging has become the new topic for researchers. Unlike some other research topics, hugs are something we can all relate to. Some of us use hugs as an excuse to get close to someone we like, others use hugs to greet friends and family, while others use it to comfort loved ones. Whatever the reason behind a hug is, we all do it and some of us enjoy them more than others.

It is important to note that Hugs aren’t only advertised by companies, there have been numerous TEDx talks on the benefits and power of hugging too.

Corresponding Videos:

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Ted Talk: Livingston Garland discusses the Importance of Physicality and Restoring Relational Bridges.

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Ted Talk: Tom Krieglstein believes that non-technological moments matter the most.

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Ted Talk: Janet Courtney believes hugs can have the same effect as a magical rainbow.