Having
a sweet tooth precedes alcoholism and may serve as a marker
for the genetic risk for developing the disease.
That's the sobering conclusion of a study in the November
issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.
"Previous research has established that in mammals such as
mice, rats and monkeys, the preference for and consumption
of sweet fluids are strongly correlated with voluntary alcohol
intake," study author Alexei B. Kampov-Polevoy, an assistant
professor of psychiatry at Mount Sinai School of Medicine,
says in a prepared statement.
Prior research by Kampov-Polevoy also showed people who are
alcoholics prefer sweeter fluids than non-alcoholics. But
it wasn't clear whether the preference for sweet fluids was
a result of a long history of drinking or whether this sweet
tooth preceded alcoholism.
This new study sought to answer that question. It included
163 social drinkers who were divided into two groups. The
81 people in the first group had a paternal history of alcoholism,
while the 82 people in the second group did not.
All the study participants rated a series of sucrose solutions
for intensity of sweetness and palatability. People with a
paternal history of alcoholism were 2.5 times more likely
to enjoy the sweet solution than the people in the second
group.
"This finding indicates that sweet liking precedes alcoholism
and suggests that the association previously reported is unlikely
to be due to differential histories of alcohol exposure,"
David Overstreet, an associate professor of psychiatry at
the Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies at the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill, says in a prepared statement.
"This finding adds further weight to the hypothesis for the
association between the liking for sweets and the genetic
risk for alcoholism. However, it does not provide definitive
proof," Overstreet says.
