PERCEIVED EATING DIFFICULTIES AND PREFERENCES FOR VARIOUS TEXTURES OF RAW AND COOKED CARROTS IN YOUNG AND ELDERLY SUBJECTS

The aim of the study was to determine how those texture attributes that elderly people find difficult to eat are related to their preferences for different modifications of carrot textures. This study was conducted with same methods in Finland and in the United Kingdom (UK). Trained sensory panels in both countries described sensory profiles of a range of carrot samples with same glossary of texture terms. The texture of carrot samples was manipulated using different preparation and cooking methods. Based on the Principal Component Analysis (PCA), boiled and puréed samples were perceived as soft, wet, pulpy and smooth, whereas raw samples were dry, brittle, rough, crispy and crunchy. Two age groups were used for the consumer tests: a young adult group aged 23 to 40 years, mean 32 (Finland) and 33 (UK) and an elderly group aged over 60 years, mean 75 (Finland) and 76 (UK). Both the elderly and young adult respondents considered samples as difficult to eat if they needed a long chewing time, were crunchy, hard, brittle, dry, rough or sharp, such as raw slices and coarsely grated samples. On the other hand, slimy, wet, smooth, soft and pulpy samples, such as boiled carrots and purée, were considered as easy-to-eat. The young adults liked more difficult textures such as rough, crispy, crunchy and hard than did the elderly respondents, but the easiest textures were not liked by either age group. Subjects with dental deficiencies liked easier textures more than those fully dentate.     

THE ‘WARRIOR GENE’ AND THE MÃORI PEOPLE: THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE GENETICISTS

The ‘gene of’ is a teleosemantic expression that conveys a simplistic and linear relationship between a gene and a phenotype. Throughout the 20th century, geneticists studied these genes of traits. The studies were often polemical when they concerned human traits: the ‘crime gene’, ‘poverty gene’, ‘IQ gene’, ‘gay gene’ or ‘gene of alcoholism’. Quite recently, a controversy occurred in 2006 in New Zealand that started with the claim that a ‘warrior gene’ exists in the Mãori community. This claim came from a geneticist working on the MAOA gene. This article is interested in the responsibility of that researcher regarding the origin of the controversy. Several errors were made: overestimation of results, abusive use of the ‘gene of’ kind of expression, poor communication with the media and a lack of scientific culture. The issues of the debate were not taken into account sufficiently, either from the political, social, ethical or even the genetic points of view. After more than 100 years of debates around ‘genes of’ all kinds (here, the ‘warrior gene’), geneticists may not hide themselves behind the media when a controversy occurs. Responsibilities have to be assumed.