Sugar craving gene also reduces body fat - study

A gene that makes humans eat more sugar can also lower body fat, a new study has shown.

Scientists have known since 2013 that a version of the gene FGF21 makes people consume more carbohydrates.

Now a group of researchers is showing that despite the effect it has on diet this gene variant decreases fat in the body.

Scientists at the University of Exeter said the findings went against the perception that eating sugar was bad for health.

Professor Timothy Frayling, a molecular geneticist, said: "We were surprised that the version of the gene associated with eating more sugar is associated with lower body fat.

This goes against the current perception that eating sugar is bad for health.

It may reduce body fat, because the same allele also results in a lower consumption of protein and fat in the diet.

But whilst this version of the gene lowers body fat, it also redistributes fat to the upper body, where it's more likely to cause harm, including higher blood pressure.

The study made use of the UK Biobank, a resource that aims to improve the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of many diseases by providing data for population-based research.

The bank includes biological samples from 500,000 people living in the UK who made blood, urine, and saliva samples available for analysis.

The investigators used data from the Biobank to look at associations between different versions of the FGF21 gene, diet, body composition, and blood pressure. Their analysis included more than 450,000 study participants.

Niels Grarup, an associate professor at the University of Copenhagen and one of the paper's co-authors, said: "Because this study has so many people in it, it gave us enough individuals to be confident in the associations we were seeing."

The findings are published in the journal Cell Reports.