Jennifer Fisher Wilson | Oct 14, 2001 | 7 min read
By design, humans crave sweet-tasting foods, which supply necessary calories, and avoid bitter-tasting foods, which could be poisonous. But an individual's genetic makeup can acutely tune taste buds. Visitors to Linda Bartoshuk's Yale University lab can take a simple taste test to discover genetic influences on their food intake. The test measures sensitivity to the chemical 6-n-propyl-thiouracil, which is intensely bitter to acute taste buds, moderately bitter to a medium taste bud, and tastele