IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v16y2025i1d10.1038_s41467-025-59945-2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The health impacts and genetic architecture of food liking in cardio-metabolic diseases

Author

Listed:
  • Wenbo Jiang

    (Harbin Medical University
    The First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University)

  • Hang Wang

    (Harbin Medical University
    Harbin Medical University Cancer Hospital)

  • Yiding Geng

    (Harbin Medical University
    The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University)

  • Meijuan Guo

    (Harbin Medical University
    The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University)

  • Yingdong Zuo

    (Harbin Medical University)

  • Sijia Han

    (Harbin Medical University
    The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University)

  • Zijie Liu

    (Harbin Medical University
    The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University)

  • Shuaijun Chen

    (Harbin Medical University)

  • Shuzhen Fan

    (Harbin Medical University
    The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University)

  • Shangying Li

    (Harbin Medical University
    The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University)

  • Conghui Qiao

    (Harbin Medical University)

  • Qianzhu Li

    (Harbin Medical University)

  • Bai Li

    (University of Ottawa)

  • Yunpeng Zhang

    (Harbin Medical University)

  • Wei Wei

    (Harbin Medical University)

  • Tianshu Han

    (Harbin Medical University
    The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University
    Harbin Medical University)

Abstract

We evaluated temporal and genetic relationships between 176 food-liking-traits and cardio-metabolic diseases using data from the UK Biobank (N = 182,087) for observational analyses and summary-level GWAS data from FinnGen and other consortia (N = 406,565–977,323) for genetic analyses. Integrating observational and genetic results, we identified two detrimental food-liking-traits (bacon and diet-fizzy-drinks) and three protective food-liking-traits (broccoli, pizza, and lentils/beans). These food-liking-traits are associated with habitual food intake and influence cardio-metabolic proteins and biological processes. Notably, we found three genetic links: diet-fizzy-drinks with heart-failure, bacon with type-2-diabetes, and lentils/beans with type-2-diabetes, identifying 54 pleiotropic single-nucleotide-variants, impacting both phenotypes. Our data show the diet-fizzy-drinks and heart-failure link maybe not direct, as diet-fizzy-drinks liking correlates with sweet food consumption and shares variants linked to BMI, adiposity, platelet count and cardio-metabolic traits. The pleiotropic single-nucleotide-variants map to 251 tissue-specific genes, with four showing high druggability potential, highlighting personalized dietary strategies for cardio-metabolic diseases.

Suggested Citation

  • Wenbo Jiang & Hang Wang & Yiding Geng & Meijuan Guo & Yingdong Zuo & Sijia Han & Zijie Liu & Shuaijun Chen & Shuzhen Fan & Shangying Li & Conghui Qiao & Qianzhu Li & Bai Li & Yunpeng Zhang & Wei Wei &, 2025. "The health impacts and genetic architecture of food liking in cardio-metabolic diseases," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-20, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-59945-2
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-59945-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-59945-2
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-025-59945-2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-59945-2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.