Love of broccoli begins in womb - Times Online
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.
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.
Comments