title: Genetic and environmental influences on food preferences in adolescence.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Food preferences vary substantially among adults and children. Twin studies have established that genes and aspects of the shared family environment both play important roles in shaping children's food preferences. The transition from childhood to adulthood is characterized by large gains in independence, but the relative influences of genes and the environment on food preferences in late adolescence are unknown.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to quantify the contribution of genetic and environmental influences on food preferences in older adolescents.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were 2865 twins aged 18-19 y from the TEDS (Twins Early Development Study), a large population-based cohort of British twins born during 1994-1996. Food preferences were measured by using a self-report questionnaire of 62 individual foods. Food items were categorized into 6 food groups (fruit, vegetables, meat or fish, dairy, starch foods, and snacks) by using factor analysis. Maximum likelihood structural equation modeling established genetic and environmental contributions to variations in preferences for each food group.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Genetic factors influenced a significant and substantial proportion of the variation in preference scores of all 6 food groups: vegetables (0.54; 95% CI: 0.47, 0.59), fruit (0.49; 95% CI: 0.43, 0.55), starchy foods (0.32; 95% CI: 0.24, 0.39), meat or fish (0.44; 95% CI: 0.38, 0.51), dairy (0.44; 95% CI: 0.37, 0.50), and snacks (0.43; 95% CI: 0.36, 0.49). Aspects of the environment that are not shared by 2 twins in a family explained all of the remaining variance in food preferences.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Food preferences had a moderate genetic basis in late adolescence, in keeping with findings in children. However, by this older age, the influence of the shared family environment had disappeared, and only aspects of the environment unique to each individual twin influenced food preferences. This finding suggests that shared environmental experiences that influence food preferences in childhood may not have effects that persist into adulthood.
authors.affiliation: Health Behaviour Research Centre, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, London, United Kingdom;
authors.forename: Andrea D
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6925-6667
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: Health Behaviour Research Centre, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, London, United Kingdom;
authors.forename: Alison
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5452-2512
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fildes
authors.affiliation: Health Behaviour Research Centre, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, London, United Kingdom; Great Ormond Street Hospital, Children's NHS Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom; and.
authors.forename: Lucy
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5938-7110
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cooke
authors.affiliation: Health Behaviour Research Centre, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, London, United Kingdom;
authors.forename: Moritz
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Herle
authors.affiliation: Medical Research Council Social, Genetic, and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Nicholas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Shakeshaft
authors.affiliation: Medical Research Council Social, Genetic, and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0756-3629
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Plomin
authors.affiliation: Health Behaviour Research Centre, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, London, United Kingdom; c.llewellyn@ucl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Clare
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0066-2827
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Llewellyn
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D004032:Diet; D004777:Environment; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D005518:Food Preferences; D059647:Gene-Environment Interaction; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014429:Twins, Dizygotic / Q000235:genetics*; D014430:Twins, Monozygotic / Q000235:genetics*; D006113:United Kingdom; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: behavioral genetics; cohort study; food preferences; heritability; twin study