Food likes/dislikes and bitter taste sensitivities of monozygotic and dizygotic twins and their parents

The purposes of this study were to identify the sensitivity to bitter taste and food like/dislike patterns of selected post-puberty monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) female human twins and to compare the sensitivity to bitter taste and food like/dislike patterns of MZ and DZ twins to those sensitivities and food patterns of their parents. Subjects for the study were ten sets of MZ twins, ten sets of DZ twins, and their mothers and fathers. Subjects completed duplicated taste threshold tests, a demographic data and a Jungian Psychological Traits questionnaire, and a set of food preference tables. All subjects also sampled phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) strips. The influence of mother's or father's choices on the food preferences of a child was not any lesser or greater for either parent. The variance for bitter taste thresholds did not differ for MZ twins or DZ twins. No significant influence on food preference by bitter taste threshold or ability to taste PTC was shown. However, according to our findings, some genetic factor exists which influences individual food selection patterns.