Cilantro: Love It? Or Hate It?

A Bite-Size Read for Your Health and Your Waistline

Photo by Lindsay Moe on Unsplash

Cilantro is an absolutely polarizing food. I’ve had friends who say anything with cilantro tastes like soap while others love it and use it as an alternative to parsley or other herbs. So, what’s the deal?

It’s chemical.

There’s a genetic component that determines how we taste cilantro. A 2012 study, among other studies, showed that the actual response lies within a cluster of olfactory receptor genes on chromosome 11. Among these olfactory receptor genes is OR6A2, which has a high binding specificity for several of the aldehydes that give cilantro its characteristic odor. This aversion seems to be more common in women than in men, and more common in Europeans than those from Africa, Latin America, South America, South Asia, and East Asia.

However, and this is a big, however, genes or genetics are not our destiny! We can shift how our genes express themselves. This is the study of epigenetics, but that’s a topic for another day.

So, for today, suffice to say that repeated positive exposure to cilantro may convert the soapy cilantro tasters into happy or happier cilantro eaters, according to Cleveland Clinic. You may want to crush the cilantro leaves to help minimize that flavor.

What’s the big deal? Why might we want to add cilantro…