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Your Parents Turned You into a Coffee Addict

A recent study has found that the amount of coffee you consume, as well as the frequency in which you consume it, could very well have to do with genetics. That still doesn't explain the collective freakout over pumpkin spice lattes, though.
Photo via Flickr user Russell James Smith

Your teeth-gnashing need for coffee does, in fact, run through your blood.

According to a study recently published in Molecular Psychiatry, the amount of coffee you consume, as well as the frequency in which you consume it, could very well have to do with genetics.

The researchers in the study, led by Marilyn Cornelis of the Harvard School of Public Health, found six genetic variants, or loci, believed to be responsible for your near-homicidal yen for a flat white each morning. Those variants could account for why some people are more susceptible to the sweet, sweet clutches of caffeine than others.

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It's not just tolerance—it's hereditary.

The study itself was a meta-analysis of data culled from more than 120,000 people of European and African-American ancestry about their coffee-drinking habits. The researchers analyzed that data by comparing genes that especially vigorous coffee-drinkers shared. Two of the genetic variants were mapped to genes involved in caffeine metabolism, while two others are believed to be responsible for the rewarding effects of caffeine. The last two were never before linked to caffeine's fantastic and necessary stimulant effects on the brain and body.

The study suggests that people possessing such gene variants can guzzle more coffee because their bodies process caffeine more quickly than those who don't.

"Like previous genetic analyses of smoking and alcohol consumption, this research serves as an example of how genetics can influence some types of habitual behavior," said study co-author Daniel Chasman in a statement.

Sure. But it still doesn't explain the collective freakout over pumpkin spice lattes, though.