Why Does Cilantro Taste Like Soap? — Transcript

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1. 0:00[Music]
2. 0:04cilantro one of the more divisive herbs
3. 0:07on the planet I for one am perfectly
4. 0:09happy to have people cramming the green
5. 0:11parts of the coriander plant into my
6. 0:12stews and salsa every single day but for
7. 0:144 to 14% of people depending on their
8. 0:17ancestry it can be a total meal Ruiner
9. 0:19making an entire soup taste like soap
10. 0:22turns out they aren't just being picky
11. 0:23how cilantro tastes to you has a lot to
12. 0:26do with your jeans now it's normal for
13. 0:28people to like different foods but
14. 0:29cilantro haters fanaticism made
15. 0:31scientists wonder why do they hate it so
16. 0:34hard so they did what scientists usually
17. 0:37do when they have questions they
18. 0:38investigated a study performed in the
19. 0:40early 2000s at the national twin Day
20. 0:42Festival in Twinsburg Ohio which yes is
21. 0:44actually a thing found that 80% of
22. 0:47identical twins shared either a like or
23. 0:49dislike for cilantro but only 50% of
24. 0:52fraternal twins who share about half
25. 0:54their genome had the same feelings for
26. 0:56cilantro researchers at the consumer
27. 0:58genetics firm 23 and me decided to take
28. 1:00a closer look they analyzed the genomes
29. 1:02of almost 30,000 people asking each
30. 1:04subject whether they liked cilantro and
31. 1:06what they thought it tasted like
32. 1:08subjects who said that cilantro made
33. 1:09salsa taste like bubble bath had
34. 1:11similarities in a cluster of smell
35. 1:12receptor genes that surprise detect the
36. 1:15smell of soap they tended to share one
37. 1:17gene in particular which codes for the
38. 1:19receptor that picks up the scent of
39. 1:21alahh chemicals alahh tides are organic
40. 1:23molecules that contain an aldhy group a
41. 1:25carbon bonded to a hydrogen and double
42. 1:27bonded to oxygen there's a bunch of
43. 1:29different Alid that have really
44. 1:30distinctive smells there's vanillin
45. 1:32which smells like vanilla and cinnam
46. 1:33alahh which is what gives cinnamon its
47. 1:35smell there's more than one alahh
48. 1:37responsible for Cilantro's distinctive
49. 1:39smell and they also happen to be a
50. 1:41byproduct of soap making upon further
51. 1:43study researchers found that almost half
52. 1:44of Europeans have two copies of the gene
53. 1:46that codes for those alahh receptors but
54. 1:48only about 15% of European subjects said
55. 1:51that the herb tasted like soap by
56. 1:52comparison 11.5% of people who had no
57. 1:55copies of that version of the gene also
58. 1:57said that cilantro was soapy so other
59. 1:59genes must be contributing as well there
60. 2:01are at least three more genes that seem
61. 2:02to be involved in this cilantro gross
62. 2:04out mystery one that codes for smell
63. 2:06receptors though we're not sure how and
64. 2:08two that affect the taste of bitterness
65. 2:10so it looks like genetics definitely at
66. 2:12least plays a part in whether you like
67. 2:13cilantro or not but some specific still
68. 2:16need to be worked out before you can
69. 2:17take a doctor's note to lunch tomorrow
70. 2:19thank you for asking and thanks to all
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81. 2:41[Music]
82. 2:51kids