Pregnancy diet influences kids’ eating habits
November 29th, 2005
Asian News International
London, November 28, 2005
The next time you complain about your kid not having his/her greens just think whether you had the right kind of food during pregnancy, as researchers have now found that flavours experienced in the womb and, later, in mothers’ milk may have a significant influence on what children are willing to eat.
Research shows that the experience of food eaten by pregnant women and mothers can be transmitted to their foetuses and infants, according to a nutritionist, Julie Mennella.
Those first flavours can play a major role in determining a child’s later food preferences. The research suggests that one way to help persuade children to eat their greens might be for mothers to eat vegetables themselves during and just after pregnancy.
“Although there are a lot of different factors involved, it might be sensible for mothers to think about what they’re eating,” Mennella, of the Monell Institute in Philadelphia, was quoted by The Independent,as saying.
She told a nutrition conference in Barcelona that research around the world had demonstrated the transmission of flavours through amniotic fluid in the womb and breast milk. One French study had shown the children of mothers exposed to anise-flavoured drinks while breastfeeding were less likely to be put off by the taste of aniseed than other babies. Similar research in Ireland found the same kind of results using garlic.
Other work involving vanilla, onions and carrots had shown that foods could flavour amniotic fluid as well as breast milk and they also influenced children’s tastes.
The effect is already well known in animals. A European study showed that newly weaned rabbits will make juniper berries their food of choice if the berries had previously been fed to their mothers.
Taste and smell are primitive senses developed according to evolutionary pressure to help guide us towards the most beneficial food sources, Ms Mennella told the meeting, organised by a baby food manufacturer, Nutricia. In times of scarcity, this means seeking out sweet tastes which act as “labels” for high calorie foods. Unpleasant, bitter tastes, on the other hand, offer a warning of potentially harmful foods such as poisonous vegetables.
Mothers, Menella suggested, could help “programme” their new-borns into knowing what is good for them through their own food choices.
Source: hindustantimes.com
Entry Filed under: Nutrition News
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