Our love of fish and chips goes back almost a million years, new study reveals

OUR emotion of food and chips goes backmost astir a cardinal years, a survey reveals.

Neanderthals and cavemen had the aforesaid gene that makes america crave carbs specified arsenic spuds, experts say.

Called AMY1, it speeds up sweetener digestion acknowledgment to an enzyme called amylase successful the saliva.

It meant our Fred Flintstone-like ancestors could guzzle loads of starchy grub much efficiently, helping guarantee their survival.

It besides explains wherefore modern Brits emotion starch-heavy foods, with fish and chips ranked arsenic our favourite meal.

Study writer Dr Omer Gokcumen, from New York’s University of Buffalo, said: “The much amylase genes you have, the much starch you tin digest.

"This allowed humans to accommodate to shifting diets arsenic starch depletion roseate ­dramatically with caller technologies and lifestyles.”

A survey of past quality remains recovered the AMY1 cistron started astir 800,000 years agone successful Neanderthals.

It grew among hunter-gatherers who ate chaotic potatoes.

Modern humans flourished by processing further copies of the genes with a varied diet.

Dr Gokcumen said: “People with higher AMY1 transcript numbers were apt digesting starch much efficiently and having much children.

“Their lineages yet fared amended implicit a agelong ­evolutionary timeframe.”