![]() But importantly, the study showed that pressuring a child to eat wouldn’t encourage him to explore new tastes – it would only stress him out. ![]() Somehow the children knew that they would get needed nutrients through eating a range of different foods. ![]() What’s more, the children in the experiment even demonstrated a capacity to self-medicate, choosing nutritional foods such as raw beef, beets and carrots if they had a cold. So much for children never wanting to try something new! The experiment lasted six years, during which nearly every child willingly sampled all 34 foods. Whichever dish a child reached for or preferred, he or she could eat. Importantly, the supervising nurse never placed any pressure on the child to choose certain foods. In other words, the children were allowed to eat whatever they wanted, choosing from a list of 34 foods, from sweet milk to kidneys. Babies starting at the ages of 6 to 11 months were allowed a special self-selection diet. Clara Marie Davis of Cleveland, Ohio, conducted an experiment investigating children's eating behaviors. Why do parents force children to eat vegetables? Often parents think that children won’t eat them otherwise.īut it’s long been proven that children make more sensible eating decisions on their own than you might think. Even the habits of your parents often become your habits, such as eating a sweet dessert after a heavy meal.Īnother influence on our palate is parental pressure to eat or like certain foods. If you were allowed to snack, for instance, you’ll probably still crave snacks as an adult. The mealtime routines you maintained as a child are often carried into your adult life. It’s not just the food you eat, but how you eat it. Memories like this highlight another important element of our food environment. Remember how much you hated it when your parents demanded you finish every last bite, even though you were stuffed? In short, taste isn’t something we’re born with but rather something we learn through eating. But if you gobbled a lot of processed salty snacks and sweet treats, that ear of corn won’t satisfy your craving for sweetness. Which sorts of foods did you grow up eating? If you didn’t consume a lot of sugar as a child, fresh corn on the cob tastes as sweet as can be. The most important factor in your palate’s development, far more important than your biological makeup, is your food environment. Consider that nearly a third of the population in Western countries doesn’t reach for sweetened cereals for breakfast. There is plenty of sugar in foods that aren’t immediately thought of as sweet. While humans supposedly crave sweet treats, what one person considers sweet may be thought of as bland and tasteless to someone else.Ī 2012 study revealed that some individuals don’t get their sweet fix from sugary cereals, but rather prefer a ball of mozzarella or a sun-ripened cob of corn. So as sugary treats are everywhere, we can blame our brains for being unable to resist the sweet temptation.Īnd yet here’s an interesting wrinkle. Humans learned to seek out sweet foods because, unlike bitter foods, they generally weren’t poisonous. Many of us believe that our love for sweets is an evolutionary phenomenon. The mainstream consumer, however, is mostly unaware of this fact. Researchers, whether neurologists or biologists, agree that our palate isn’t something we’re born with but something we learn. Have you given up on the possibility of your child ever liking broccoli or brussels sprouts? It might seem as if children are hardwired to hate certain foods, but this simply isn’t the case.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |