Love of broccoli begins in womb
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Love of broccoli begins in womb (The Times online - UK)
Women can give their children a lifelong taste for “healthy but horrible” foods such as broccoli and brussels sprouts simply by eating them during pregnancy or while breast-feeding, researchers have found.
The discovery could help avoid the battles over food and diet which dominate the dinner tables of many young families as parents try to persuade children to “eat your veg”.
It suggests that mothers should adopt a stealth approach, indoctrinating their offspring’s taste buds with a liking for cabbage, broccoli and other healthy vegetables even before they are born, say the researchers.
“Flavours from the mother’s diet are transmitted through amniotic fluid and mother’s milk. A baby learns to like a food’s taste when the mother eats that food on a regular basis,” said Julie Mennella, of Monell Chemical Senses Center, a research institute in Philadelphia, who did the study.
The technique can work for a variety of vegetables. In one experiment Mennella gave carrot juice to a group of pregnant women and to a separate group of breast-feeding women. Their babies were subsequently keener on carrots than those born to women who had not been given carrot juice.
A similar experiment with fruit showed that babies whose mothers ate raw peaches while breast-feeding were far more willing to accept them in their own food.
A third involved feeding green beans to women with older babies who were being breast-fed but also eating solids.
Initially the babies rejected the vegetables but after their mothers began eating beans, the children acquired a taste for them too.
“Babies are born with a dislike for bitter tastes,” said Mennella. “If mothers want their babies to learn to like to eat vegetables, especially green vegetables, they need to provide them with opportunities to taste these foods.”
Mennella’s research is confirmed by other work. One French study showed that the children of mothers exposed to anise-flavoured drinks while breast-feeding were more likely to accept the taste of aniseed. Other research has even found the same effect with garlic.
The explanation for such effects lies far back in humanity’s evolution. Bitter tastes are usually caused by alkaloids � poisons developed by plants to protect themselves against being eaten. Over time humans developed innate reactions against such tastes and it is these responses that prompt babies to reject foods.