We all battle the lure of the dreaded carbs. So news that there’s a simple test to determine whether that piece of bread is going to expand your waist or not sounded like something we needed to check out!
In his book The DNA Restart: Unlock Your Personal Genetic Code to Eat for Your Genes, Lose Weight, and Reverse Aging, geneticist Sharon Moalem revealed the ‘cracker test’, which can determine how well your body can digest carbs and therefore how much you can eat without gaining too much weight.
VT claim Moalem’s theory was put to the test by Dr Xand van Tulleken, a group of medical students and, unsurprisingly, a packet of crackers.
Each student was asked to chew an unsalted cracker for 30 seconds, and then raise their hand when they started to notice the flavour of the cracker change (if it started to taste sweet, for example).
There was a range of results – one student noticed a flavour change after just 17 seconds, while others didn’t notice it at all.
The student who was fastest was found to have a high concentration of amylase enzymes in their mouth. These chop up the big starch molecules into smaller molecules of sugar that you can taste. And that means this student should be able to eat a lot of carbs without having any problems.
Not noticing the flavour change for a longer period of time – if ever – would indicate you’re more likely to put on weight from eating carbs, as you are likely to have a low concentration of amylase in your mouth.
So why not try it with your crew the next time you’re heading out for dinner. You could just find a great excuse to tuck into a burger – or, regrettably, drown your sorrows with a salad instead.
