Mothers can help babies develop a taste for veggies

Babies can be made to develop a taste for fruits and vegetables early if their mothers eat these foods while breastfeeding, and by offering them these foods regularly once they start having solid food. Eating fruits and vegetables is linked to lower risks of obesity and certain cancers, yet many adults and children do not eat enough fruits and vegetables each day. The best predictor of how much fruits and vegetables children eat is whether they like the tastes of these foods. If babies learn to like these tastes, they can be made to start a healthy diet early. Researchers from the Monell Chemical Senses Center, Philadelphia, randomly assigned 45 infants between 4 and 8 months of age, 20 of whom were breastfed, to one of two groups. One group was fed green beans for eight consecutive days; the other was given green beans and then peaches over the same period. Acceptance of both foods was assessed before and after repeated exposure. It was found that breastfeeding was tied to the infants' initial acceptance of green beans and peaches — but only if the mother regularly consumed those foods. Breastfed infants showed greater liking of peaches, as did their mothers, who ate more fruits in general than did mothers who formula fed their babies. The enhanced acceptance of peaches among these infants can be attributed to increased exposure to the fruit flavour through breast milk. The findings suggest that flavours from the mother's diet are transmitted through amniotic fluid and mother's milk. So, a baby learns to like a food's taste when the mother eats that food on a regular basis. Both groups of mothers reported eating green beans and green vegetables infrequently — at levels below current recommendations —and there was no difference in the amount of green beans eaten by breastfed and formula-fed infants the first time the vegetables were offered. Once weaned, repeatedly offering green beans over eight days, with or without peaches, enhanced acceptance of the vegetable in both breastfed and formula-fed infants — increasing intake by almost three-fold. Babies are born with a dislike for bitter tastes, and their facial expressions do not always match their willingness to eat fruits and vegetables. But 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. The results also suggest that mothers should not give up on a food just because her infant does not seem to approve it.