(WardNA) wrote in
:

>>There is _one_ genetic component -- differences in the sense of taste.
>>Example: to me, saccharin has a bitter taste. To my mother, it
>>didn't.
>> This is hereditary.
>
> You're saying that taste perceptions alternate between generations,

No.

> and that this tendency to alternate is hereditary?

No.

I'm saying that 1) ability to taste is genetic and 2) I had one
particular gene which my mother didn't.

Such a gene might be more common in men than in women for the same reason
that red-green color blindness is -- though in this particular case that
seems not to be true. Or I might have inherited the gene from my father.

It's possible to learn to _notice_ subtle flavors; that's non-genetic.
But no matter how hard someone who doesn't detect bitterness in saccharin
tries, they're not going to detect it.


--
Dan Goodman
Journal http://dsgood.blogspot.com or
http://www.livejournal.com/users/dsgood/
Whatever you wish for me, may you have twice as much.