A person’s genetic make-up significantly influences their ability to maintain a strict vegetarian diet, a study has found.
“There might be something hard-wired in many of us that affects our dietary choices,” said Nabeel Yaseen, professor emeritus of pathology at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine.
“While many aspire to be vegetarians, not everyone can stick to it. This could be due to their genes.”
The team delved into the genetic make-up of 5,324 strict vegetarians, comparing their data with 329,455 controls.
Three genes strongly linked to vegetarianism were identified, with another 31 showing potential association.
Several of these genes, particularly NPC1 and RMC1, play roles in lipid metabolism or brain function.
“One highly speculative possibility is that meat may contain unique lipid nutrient(s) that those genetically predisposed to vegetarianism are able to synthesise endogenously while non-vegetarians need to obtain them from their diet,” Dr Yaseen told The National.
The global rise of vegetarianism has often been attributed to religious, moral and health reasons.
Yet vegetarians only make up a small portion of the global population: 3-4 per cent in the US and 2.3 per cent of adults in the UK.
Dr Yaseen believes that beyond taste, how our bodies metabolise food and drink significantly affects our dietary preferences.
Drawing parallels with how some acquire tastes for substances such as alcohol or coffee, he suggests a similar mechanism might be at play for meat.
But what does this mean for those who choose vegetarianism for religious or moral reasons?
“Our data show that genetics also play a part, but the relative contributions of genetic and environmental factors to the ability to adhere to a strict vegetarian diet are likely to vary from person to person,” he told The National.
“We hope that future research will identify critical genetic determinants that enable adherence to a vegetarian diet and therefore enable us to provide personalised dietary recommendations according to a person's genotype”.
This study, titled Genetics of Vegetarianism: A Genome-Wide Association Study, was conducted in partnership with scientists from Washington University in St Louis and Edinburgh, UK, and published in the journal PLOS One.
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
hall of shame
SUNDERLAND 2002-03
No one has ended a Premier League season quite like Sunderland. They lost each of their final 15 games, taking no points after January. They ended up with 19 in total, sacking managers Peter Reid and Howard Wilkinson and losing 3-1 to Charlton when they scored three own goals in eight minutes.
SUNDERLAND 2005-06
Until Derby came along, Sunderland’s total of 15 points was the Premier League’s record low. They made it until May and their final home game before winning at the Stadium of Light while they lost a joint record 29 of their 38 league games.
HUDDERSFIELD 2018-19
Joined Derby as the only team to be relegated in March. No striker scored until January, while only two players got more assists than goalkeeper Jonas Lossl. The mid-season appointment Jan Siewert was to end his time as Huddersfield manager with a 5.3 per cent win rate.
ASTON VILLA 2015-16
Perhaps the most inexplicably bad season, considering they signed Idrissa Gueye and Adama Traore and still only got 17 points. Villa won their first league game, but none of the next 19. They ended an abominable campaign by taking one point from the last 39 available.
FULHAM 2018-19
Terrible in different ways. Fulham’s total of 26 points is not among the lowest ever but they contrived to get relegated after spending over £100 million (Dh457m) in the transfer market. Much of it went on defenders but they only kept two clean sheets in their first 33 games.
LA LIGA: Sporting Gijon, 13 points in 1997-98.
BUNDESLIGA: Tasmania Berlin, 10 points in 1965-66
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COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Sebastian Stefan, Sebastian Morar and Claudia Pacurar
Based: Dubai, UAE
Founded: 2014
Number of employees: 36
Sector: Logistics
Raised: $2.5 million
Investors: DP World, Prime Venture Partners and family offices in Saudi Arabia and the UAE
