It’s late in the afternoon. You’re slacking at work. The workday is crawling by. So what do you do? You go for your fourth cup of coffee, even though you know it'll keep you up later tonight, and you power through your never-ending pile of stuff.
Ever wonder why you’re craving that cup so badly? It might be all in your genes.
The presence of the gene variant PDSS2 in your DNA could affect how much coffee you drink each day. That’s the result of a new study from Nicola Pirastu, chancellor's fellow at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.
The study, published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports, found that people with the gene variant drank less coffee per day on average than people without it—meaning that without the gene, you need more of a coffee fix each day.
Researchers looked at studies done on 1,200 people in Italy and 1,700 people in the Netherlands to see how the gene variant affected coffee drinkers. Both studies produced similar results, leading the researchers to suggest that the presence of the gene keeps caffeine in the body longer—and that people without the gene depended on more cups of coffee to sustain their caffeine fix throughout the day.
“The results of our study add to existing research suggesting that our drive to drink coffee may be embedded in our genes," said Pirastu, author of the study.
Next time you grab that extra cup of coffee at work, remember—it could be in your DNA.
In the meantime, check out related stories on Men’s Fitness about your coffee fix: