Christmas is approaching, and that means so are the overcooked, bitter, totally unnecessarily mountains of Brussels sprouts that your family insists on serving. Every, damn, time.
Well, that’s how some people might see it, anyway.
The fact is, love them or hate them, Brussels sprouts are always going to be controversial – a little like that awkward uncle who rocks up every Christmas and starts a big family row.
But it turns out that sprout-haters have actually got a very sound, scientific excuse for their picky eating on Christmas day – and it's all to do with genetics.
Stacey Lockyer, nutrition scientist at the British Nutrition Foundation, told Huffpost: “Brussels sprouts are one of a group of vegetables known as cruciferous vegetables or Brassica which also includes broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and kale.
“Brassica contain high amounts of compounds called glucosinolates which, when metabolised in the body, give them their characteristic sharp or bitter taste.”
An area covering 3,240 football pitches is dedicated to growing Brussels sprouts in the UK. If you were to line them up individually, they'd stretch from London to Sydney.
Despite this, some people are just genetically predisposed to hate that bitter taste.
Lockyer added: “Whether we like or dislike certain foods is determined by different factors (such as previous experiences with a food and number of exposures), but some studies have demonstrated that the perception of bitterness of cruciferous vegetables is linked to genetic differences in taste receptors on the tongue.”
In fact, a 2011 study by Cornwall College found sprouts contain a chemical which only tastes bitter to people who have a variation of a certain gene.
The research found that around 50 percent of the world’s population have a mutation on this gene. About half of us just don’t taste the bitterness usually associated with sprouts, and therefore actually like them. (Imagine!)
Nonetheless, hope is not lost. A University of Warwick study found that as we get older, we’re more likely to like sprouts.
Research fellow Lauren Chappell said in a blog post: "Sulphur is responsible for the bitter sprout taste. As we age, we lose tastebuds, which can make them more palatable—potentially why adults who hated sprouts as children now embrace them in seasonal dishes.”
Which means, regrettably, that your grandparents were probably right all along.
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