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Teaching children to like and eat vegetables
Abstract
Higher vegetable intake has been related to lower risks of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, several cancers and obesity. Yet children consume fewer than the recommended servings of fruits and vegetables set forth by the USDA. Exposure to vegetables has successfully improved children's liking for and consumption of vegetables particularly for children younger than two years. In contrast, associative conditioning seems necessary for older children, especially with bitter vegetables. We review studies using both exposure and associative conditioning to teach children to like vegetables, including flavor-flavor learning and flavor-calorie learning. Recognizing these different processes helps reconcile discrepant literature and may provide techniques for increasing preferences for vegetables in children. Associative conditioning and exposure can be used by parents and others to enhance children's liking for and consumption of vegetables.
Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
... Food neophobia and lack of exposure is suggested to be a major reason for the low intake of vegetables seen in children (Cooke, 2007;Wadhera et al., 2015). Food neophobia refers to the reluctance towards trying new foods and the avoidance of eating anything that is unfamiliar (Dovey et al., 2008;Łobo s & Januszewicz, 2019). ...
... Food neophobia refers to the reluctance towards trying new foods and the avoidance of eating anything that is unfamiliar (Dovey et al., 2008;Łobo s & Januszewicz, 2019). Previous reviews have investigated whether increasing the exposure of fruits and vegetables to children at a young age can lead to greater liking and healthy eating patterns in adulthood (Cooke, 2007, Wadhera et al., 2015. It was found that repeated opportunities to taste novel foods resulted in greater amount of consumption and liking towards the unfamiliar foods, suggesting that food neophobia can potentially be reduced by frequent exposure to novel foods (Cooke, 2007, Wadhera et al., 2015. ...
... Previous reviews have investigated whether increasing the exposure of fruits and vegetables to children at a young age can lead to greater liking and healthy eating patterns in adulthood (Cooke, 2007, Wadhera et al., 2015. It was found that repeated opportunities to taste novel foods resulted in greater amount of consumption and liking towards the unfamiliar foods, suggesting that food neophobia can potentially be reduced by frequent exposure to novel foods (Cooke, 2007, Wadhera et al., 2015. Food neophobia begins at around 2 years old and is strongly shaped by a child's experience with food (Cooke, 2007). ...
This narrative review focuses on the effects of ‘Sensory Play’ on young children's willingness to try new nutritious foods, particularly fruits and vegetables. Young children are often fussy when it comes to trying new nutritious foods. ‘Sensory Play’ is a type of early childhood sensory education that stimulates one, or more, of the five senses: taste, touch, smell, sight and sound. This review examines the literature on sensory‐based education and its effects on children's willingness to taste fruits and vegetables. Previous research has explored the use of ‘Sensory Play’ to introduce fruits and vegetables to young children, with promising results in increasing intake. However, there is a gap in research on the potential use of non‐taste exposure activities (i.e. activities that use the sense of touch, smell, sight and sound, but not taste) to increase children's willingness to try unfamiliar fruits and vegetables. The outcomes of this review explored the potential of how these sensory‐based educational tools can be used to decrease barriers of fruits and vegetables acceptance.
... Children start to be exposed to the different flavors of food from the prenatal period, when the amniotic fluid presents the feeding experiences of the pregnant woman, and continues during breastfeeding, offering the infant the stimuli to develop a wide spectrum of flavors. This fact explains why breastfed children are less demanding and more predisposed to try new foods (Gregory et al. 2011, Lam 2015, Wadhera et al. 2015. Children are born with a preference for sweet taste while all other flavors need to be learned by exposure, which should preferably occur between 4 and 6 months of age (Harris & Mason 2017, Ross 2017. ...
... The term food neophobia is characterized by an overall reduction in appetite and refusal of new foods. It is defined as reluctance to eat or "avoid new foods" that usually starts between 6 and 12 months of age and can last up to 6 years, when decreases, but may remain some residual until the adult life (Wadhera et al. 2015, Yan 2017. It occurs at the stage where the child has a slowing of growth, and the interest in the food is replaced by the stimuli of the environment. ...
... Children are particularly reluctant to try new foods, having an innate preference for sweet, high-energy flavors (Savage et al. 2007, Marty et al. 2018, Cooke et al. 2017, and they tend to try new foods when they see adults ingesting them and not only when they are offered by them (Birch & Doub 2014). Therefore, in order to achieve the goal of having the child accept the meals, it must be verified whether the refusal to eat maybe a adults (Wadhera et al 2015), to take advantage of the window of opportunity (Cooke et al 2017) and to repeat exposure to new foods 10 to 15 times (increases the sense of security, familiarizes the child with the food, relates flavor to the nutrient and different flavors) (Cooke et al 2017, Caton et al 2014. Basic principles to achieve success (Walton et al. 2017, Ong et al. 2014, Leung et al. 2012, DeCosta et al. 2017, Brunk & Moller 2019, DeJesus et al. 2019 1. to stimulate the appetite increasing the palatability of the foods 2. identify the child's preferences 3. avoid distractions 4. to stimulate independence 5. gradual introduction of food and textures (liquid, homogeneous, fine granulosa, coarse granulosa, coarse particles, and fragments) 6. limiting the time of meals 7. offer the food in containers and with cutlery appropriate to the conditions of the child 8. maintain neutral attitudes during meals 9. child should spend energy with physical activities. ...
... Repeated taste exposure and conditioning strategies have been used to successfully change liking and intakes of vegetables (20)(21)(22)(23). Some work specifically recommends repeated exposure (21,22), but not all studies demonstrate benefits, and the value of conditioning beyond that of repeated exposure remains controversial (21). ...
... Repeated taste exposure and conditioning strategies have been used to successfully change liking and intakes of vegetables (20)(21)(22)(23). Some work specifically recommends repeated exposure (21,22), but not all studies demonstrate benefits, and the value of conditioning beyond that of repeated exposure remains controversial (21). Statistical combination and comparison of the current evidence will provide firmer conclusions and may resolve controversies. ...
... Heterogeneity between comparisons was low, CIs were relatively narrow, similar effects were found between random-and fixed-effect models, and limited evidence of publication bias was found, all adding weight to the effects found. This combined effect confirms those previously advocated from other narrative reviews in this area (21)(22)(23). ...
Background:
Vegetable intakes are typically lower than recommended for health. Although repeated exposure has been advocated to increase vegetable liking and consumption, no combination of the evidence yet provides a measure of benefit from repeated exposure or alternative conditioning strategies.
Objective:
This work aimed to identify and synthesize the current evidence for the use of repeated exposure and conditioning strategies for increasing vegetable liking and consumption.
Design:
Three academic databases were searched over all years of records using prespecified search terms. Published data from all suitable articles were tabulated in relation to 3 research questions and combined via meta-analyses.
Results:
Forty-three articles detailing 117 comparisons investigating the use of repeated exposure and conditioning strategies for increasing liking and intakes of vegetables were found. Our analyses demonstrate: 1) increased liking and intakes of the exposed vegetable after repeated exposure compared with no exposure; 2) increased liking for the exposed vegetable after conditioning compared with repeated exposure, increased intakes after the use of rewards, and some suggestion of decreased intakes after flavor-nutrient conditioning; and 3) increased liking and intakes of a novel vegetable after repeated exposure to a variety of other vegetables compared with no exposure or repeated exposure to one other vegetable. Effect sizes, however, are small, and limited evidence suggests long-term benefits. Our analyses, furthermore, are limited by limitations in study design, compliance, and/or reporting.
Conclusions:
Based on our findings, we recommend the use of repeated exposure to one and a variety of vegetables, and the use of rewards, for increasing vegetable liking and consumption. Confirmation from further large, well-conducted studies that use realistic scenarios, however, is also required. This study was registered at PROSPERO as CRD42017056919.
... 48 Pressuring children to eat is part of an authoritarian feeding style associated with lower child F&V intake. 40,48,49 Parents and other caretakers can overcome child food neophobia through repeated exposure to new foods, including F&V. [50][51][52] Other studies have explored whether exposing children to a variety of F&V increases overall F&V intake. Repeatedly offering a variety of F&V to children leads to increased intake of the offered fruit or vegetable, but children also become more willing to try new F&V. ...
... 56,57 Thus, SCT supports repeatedly exposing children, with or without reinforcement, to a variety of F&V to increase quantity and variety of F&V intake, as seen in the literature. [50][51][52][53][54] Verbal encouragement and praise, non-food rewards, observational learning from referent models or models similar to the child, and hands-on experiences exploring and preparing different F&V are ways other SCT behavior change methods could be operationalized for the problem at hand. ...
American children eat fewer fruits and vegetables (F&V) and less variety of F&V than recommended for health. Food cooperatives and other programs have become a popular way to increase F&V intake, but little is known about the variety of F&V distributed by these programs or its relationship with program attendance or child F&V intake. Brighter Bites is a national, school-based food co-op distributing rescued, donated, fresh F&V to families in low-income schools. We evaluated, for the first time, the variety of F&V Brighter Bites distributed to families in the 2018-2019 school year and the relationships between that variety and both child F&V intake and family program attendance. We categorized the F&V distributed in the 2018-2019 school year using the Brighter Bites internal variety matrix and described them in detail using frequencies and percentages. We generated a variety score for each family in a subpopulation (n=3,790) of survey respondents based on the specific F&V distributed the weeks they attended. A generalized ordinal estimation model was specified to evaluate the relationship between family variety score and parent-reported child F&V intake before and after participating in Brighter Bites. We generated a variety score for schools (n=90) based on the specific F&V distributed at each school across 16 weeks of programming, then specified a multilevel negative binomial model to assess the relationship between school variety score and family program attendance. Additional post hoc analyses were completed. Across six cities, Brighter Bites distributed 109 types of F&V in the 2018-2019 school year. Families most frequently received starchy and root vegetables (white potatoes and carrots) and citrus fruits (limes and oranges), but they received dark leafy green vegetables and berries infrequently. Our statistical models were not significant overall, but in post hoc analyses of school F&V variety score and family program attendance we found differences between cities which may have obscured a relationship in our original model. Researchers are still in the early stages of evaluating and understanding relationships between the variety of F&V programs distribute and desired program and behavioral outcomes. Counting only the variety of F&V distributed by a program is inadequate to describe its influences on individual behaviors. Additional, more sensitive measures and variables, informed by a behavioral theory such as Social Cognitive Theory, should be used in future analyses to model better the intrapersonal, interpersonal, and environmental factors which influence desired outcomes.
... Set out below, is a proposal for a more integrated and individualised approach to increasing liking and intake of vegetables. There are many systematic reviews [5,74,102] and narrative reviews [3,147,150] on the topic of learning to eat vegetables. However, these reviews focus on a particular facet of experiences with vegetables or a particular age range, and so there is a need to integrate these evidence-based approaches to provide an overarching view of vegetable learning in children. ...
... Associative conditioning to acquire liking for vegetables pairs a target vegetable with an already liked taste (FFL), a more energy dense nutrient (FNL: flavour nutrient learning) or a rewarding consequence (see [83,150,158,161] for reviews). Alternatively, studies have attempted to produce a change in affective response to foods by pairing initially neutral foods with a food that already possesses a negative or positive valence, called evaluative conditioning [93]. ...
Children eat too few vegetables and this is attributed to disliked flavours and texture as well as low energy density. Vegetables confer selective health benefits over other foods and so children are encouraged to eat them. Parents and caregivers face a challenge in incorporating vegetables into their child's habitual diet. However, liking and intake may be increased through different forms of learning. Children learn about vegetables across development from exposure to some vegetable flavours in utero, through breastmilk, complementary feeding and transitioning to family diets. Infants aged between 5-7m are most amenable to accepting vegetables. However, a range of biological, social, environmental and individual factors may act independently and in tandem to reduce the appeal of eating vegetables. By applying aspects of learning theory, including social learning, liking and intake of vegetables can be increased. We propose taking an integrated and individualised approach to child feeding in order to achieve optimal learning in the early years. Simple techniques such as repeated exposure, modelling, social praise and creating social norms for eating vegetables can contribute to positive feeding experiences which in turn, contributes to increased acceptance of vegetables. However, there is a mismatch between experimental studies and the ways that children eat vegetables in real world settings. Therefore, current knowledge of the best strategies to increase vegetable liking and intake gained from experimental studies must be adapted and integrated for application to home and care settings, while responding to individual differences.
... (2001) в своем исследовании показали, что если матери в течение последних недель перед родами пили морковный сок, их младенцы в последующем отдавали большее предпочтение продуктам прикорма, имеющим морковный вкус [22]. Дети на грудном вскармливании, как правило, более восприимчивы к новым вкусам, чем дети на искусственном вскармливании [21,23]. Причем показано отсутствие достоверной связи между продолжительностью грудного вскармливания и принятием детьми фруктов и овощей в течение первых 2 мес. ...
... Во время введения продуктов прикорма вкусовые предпочтения у ребенка продолжают формироваться в результате многократного воздействия этих продуктов [18,20]. Разнообразие вкусов в период введения прикорма может способствовать принятию младенцами новых продуктов питания [23]. Так, в исследовании C.J. Gerrish, J.A. Mennella (2001) младенцы, которых в течение 9 дней кормили различными овощами за исключением моркови, в дальнейшем ели значительно больше моркови и лучше принимали новые продукты прикорма, чем дети, которые получали овощной прикорм исключительно в виде картофеля [31]. ...
I.N. Zakharova1, Yu.A. Dmitrieva1, E.B. Machneva2, A.N. Tsutsaeva3
1Russian Medical Academy of Continuous Professional Education, Moscow, Russian Federation
2Russian Children’s Clinical Hospital of the Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University, Moscow, Russian Federation
3Stavropol State Medical University, Stavropol, Russian Federation
Since ancient times, scientists and philosophers were interested in the sense of taste, the mechanisms of its development, anatomical structures responsible for taste, and its importance. Currently, it is clear that food preferences are the main determinant of the development of nutrition and food behavior. Food preferences begin to develop in the early childhood and retain throughout the life. Therefore, inculcating correct nutritional behavior with respect to healthy food is a promising approach to improve the quality of diet being one of the key factors affecting human health. This article addresses current data on morphology, genetics, embryology, and ontogeny of gustatory system as well as major factors affecting the development of food preferences in a child. Most of these factors are modified ones, therefore, the aim of this review is to draw the attention of pediatricians since this is pediatrician who makes evidence-based recommendations on child nutrition and provide s adequate feeding strategy.
Keywords: genetics, food preferences, taste, taste receptors, children, smell, ontogeny, tongue, baby food, healthy lifestyle.
For citation: Zakharova I.N., Dmitrieva Yu.A., Machneva E.B., Tsutsaeva A.N. The development of food preferences: anatomical and genetic determinants, important factors of taste development in children. Russian Journal of Woman and Child Health. 2020;3(2):119–125. DOI: 10.32364/2618-8430-2020-3-2-119-125.
... 27 Other similar conditioning paradigms have been found to increase vegetable liking and intake during early and middle childhood. [28][29][30][31] Although both repeated exposure and associative conditioning have demonstrated effectiveness in increasing children's vegetable liking and intake, mixed results have been reported when directly comparing the effects of these interventions. Some studies have found that it is possible for associative conditioning to achieve more robust and persistent effects on target vegetable acceptance vs repeated exposure, 32 whereas other studies have suggested that the effects of the two approaches are similar. ...
... Prior associative conditioning studies have largely utilised paradigms in which a target vegetable is paired with a well-liked food UCS. 31 The present work builds on such literature by examining the potential of peer contexts featuring group-game activities to serve as non-food UCSs, eliminating extra calories and exposure to lesshealthy foods typically provided during exposure trials. Across the study's nine exposure sessions, the majority of associative conditioning group children indicated they liked the group games a lot. ...
Background
Children's vegetable acceptance increases following repeated exposure and associative conditioning pairing a target vegetable with a well‐liked food. Yet traditional pairings may increase energy intake when well‐liked foods are calorie‐rich.
Objectives
To examine whether pairing a non‐food stimulus with target vegetables increases children's vegetable acceptance and whether effects exceed those of repeated exposure.
Methods
Twenty‐three 6‐to‐8‐year‐old children participated in twice‐weekly sessions across 6 weeks of a summer camp serving children from low‐income families. First‐ and second‐grade camp classrooms were randomly assigned to associative conditioning and repeated exposure groups, respectively. Liking and preference were assessed for seven vegetables at pre/post‐test. For each child, two non‐preferred vegetables were randomly assigned as the target or control. During exposures, associative conditioning group children experienced a positive peer context (involving group games) paired with tasting their target vegetable. The repeated exposure group received only taste exposures; target vegetable liking was assessed.
Results
Preferences for target vegetables increased from pre‐ (Median = 6.00) to post‐test (Median = 3.00) overall (P = .007), but did not differ by group (P = .59). Group, time and interaction effects on vegetable liking were non‐significant overall (P ≥ .29), with some evidence of group differences when examining select time points.
Conclusions
Findings can inform future research aiming to increase vegetable preferences in community settings.
... During early childhood, exposure to specific foods plays an important role in developing familiarity and thus liking of certain textures (Blossfeld, Collins, Kiely, & Delahunty, 2007). Associative conditioning (learning through association with a positive or negative experience) (Wadhera, Capaldi Phillips, & Wilkie, 2015) tends to be more effective than simple exposure for increasing liking and consumption of foods. Texture liking or disliking is also influenced by expectations of food texture. ...
... The lack of relationships observed between texture-liking ratings and oral physiological measurements in this study suggests that reasons for food texture liking are primarily learned rather than innate and much more related to specific textures in specific foods. Additional studies will be needed to investigate the role that previous experience and other factors, such as personality, may play in shaping food texture liking and the relationships of these factors with oral physiological parameters (Blossfeld et al., 2007;Kalviainen et al., 2000;Rey, González, Martínez-de-Juan, Benedito, & Mulet, 2007;Wadhera et al., 2015;Yoshikawa, Nishimaru, Tashiro, & Yoshida, 1970). ...
Researchers have categorized people into four 'mouth-behavior' groups based on their oral processing preferences, and claimed that members of those mouth-behavior groups differ in their food texture preferences. If people could be classified into groups based on their liking of different textures, food products could be targeted to specific subgroups, potentially enhancing consumer acceptability. In the first part of our study we grouped people based on their liking ratings of a wide variety of food textures by asking 288 participants to rate their liking of 106 food texture attributes in an online survey. In the second part of our study we further examined relationships among individuals' food texture liking ratings, mouth-behavior group membership, and measurements of four oral physiological parameters (saliva flow rate, chewing efficiency, biting force, and particle size sensitivity). One-hundred participants completed the online survey on food texture liking, classified themselves into one of four mouth-behavior groups (Chewers, Crunchers, Smooshers, and Suckers), and were measured for four oral physiological parameters. We refuted the idea that large texture-liking subgroups exist. Although our participants self-categorized themselves into the four mouth-behavior groups similarly to previous researchers, our texture liking measurements did not support the presumed preferences of those mouth-behavior groups. Clustering of participants on their oral physiological measurements produced a 'low particle-size sensitivity' cluster, a 'high biting force' cluster, a 'high saliva flow rate' cluster, and a 'low saliva flow and low chewing efficiency' cluster. Neither our texture liking nor our oral physiological measurements predicted membership in the four mouth-behavior groups. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
... For example, 5-to 8-monthold infants of mothers randomized to drink carrot juice during the third trimester of pregnancy (9) or during lactation (9,10) had less aversion to carrot-flavored cereal than children of mothers who only drank water. While breastfed infants are generally more accepting of novel flavors than formula-fed infants (6,11), the control groups in Mennella et al. 's randomized trials (9,10) were also breastfed, so the authors concluded that the increased acceptance was due to exposure through breastmilk. Notably, null associations between breastfeeding duration and infants' acceptance of fruits and vegetables during the first 2 months of weaning have been reported (12). ...
... Many experimental studies have demonstrated this to be the case for fruits and vegetables (5,22). Variety can also promote infants' acceptance of new foods (11). Infants who were fed various vegetables not including carrots for 9 days ate significantly more carrots and were more accepting of a new food than infants who were only fed potatoes (23). ...
Food preferences are a primary determinant of dietary intake and behaviors, and they persist from early childhood into later life. As such, establishing preferences for healthy foods from a young age is a promising approach to improving diet quality, a leading contributor to cardiometabolic health. This narrative review first describes the critical period for food preference development starting in utero and continuing through early childhood. Infants’ innate aversion to sour and bitter tastes can lead them to initially reject some healthy foods such as vegetables. Infants can learn to like these foods through exposures to their flavors in utero and through breastmilk. As solid foods are introduced through toddlerhood, children’s food preferences are shaped by parent feeding practices and environmental factors such as food advertising. Next, we discuss two key focus areas to improve diet quality highlighted by the current understanding of food preferences: (1) promoting healthy food preferences through breastfeeding and early exposures to healthy foods and (2) limiting the extent to which innate preferences for sweet and salty tastes lead to poor diet quality. We use an ecological framework to summarize potential points of intervention and provide recommendations for these focus areas, such as worksite benefits that promote breastfeeding, and changes in food retail and service environments. Individuals’ choices around breastfeeding and diet may ultimately be influenced by policy and community-level factors. It is thus crucial to take a multilevel approach to establish healthy food preferences from a young age, which have the potential to translate into lifelong healthy diet.
... In addition to exposure, research also suggests that strategies based on associative conditioning may also increase liking for foods (Wadhera et al. 2015). These techniques involve associating a less preferred food with a positive or negative consequence. ...
... For example, sweeteners can be added to items (e.g., grapefruit juice) and, with multiple exposures, children exhibit a greater preference for the item in its natural state relative to those who received multiple exposures to an unsweetened item (i.e., flavor-flavor learning; Capaldi and Privitera 2008). While studies have also looked at the provision of rewards as a basis for increasing liking, the results are mixed, making it unclear if rewards offer additional benefit over merely exposing children to foods repeatedly (see Corsini et al. 2013;Wadhera et al. 2015). However, when exposure is paired with parental modeling of food acceptance (either with or without additional rewards), children's acceptance of disliked foods increases. ...
A wide body of research shows that lower income is highly correlated with obesity in industrialized nations. Research indicates this is largely due to lack of availability and affordability of healthier foods for lower-income families. In addition, lower-income families show considerable anxiety over buying healthier foods, as they are often rejected by children and potentially lead to costly food waste. Lower-income families face multiple stressors that thwart the ability to manage this tension, including economic constraints, the need to buffer stress with positive emotions, and juggling multiple responsibilities. In this chapter, we examine key issues faced by lower-income families and offer research-based solutions.
... According to Dresler et al. (2017), 'Taste is both a predictor of children's fruit and vegetable consumption and a barrier to it,'. As for preschool children, especially the youngest, studies have shown that their dislike of the taste of V&F may be overcome through their repeated exposure to V&F and opportunities for sensory training (Roberts et al., 2022;Wadhera et al., 2015;Zeinstra et al., 2018). In a study in the Netherlands, observed that parental V&F consumption, as well as the parental strategy of offering their children a choice of different V&Fs, positively predicted V&F consumption by 4-to 12-year-old children. ...
... Specifically, six or more exposures have consistently been shown to produce liking and intake of vegetables. [34][35][36][37][38][39] Fruit and vegetable tracking has indicated that most pediatric patients (8-18 years of age) reach this threshold after approximately 24 months (2 years) of exposure to the current FVPP. ...
Background
Health impacts of pediatric fruit and vegetable prescription programs (FVPPs) are unclear. This study assessed whether exposure to an FVPP that provided $15 produce prescriptions during pediatric visits was associated with differences in child diet, food security, physical activity, weight status, and blood pressure.
Methods
This cross-sectional analysis included data from caregiver-child dyads with varying levels of exposure to the FVPP. Dyads completed surveys at pediatric offices. Trained research assistants measured height and weight of children and recorded blood pressure through chart review. Causal inference analyses using propensity score adjustments compared outcomes of exposure groups.
Results
680 dyads enrolled. Youth who received ≥1 prescription (exposed) reported greater physical activity compared to youth who received no prescriptions (unexposed). Blood pressure percentiles were lower among exposed when compared to unexposed youth (63.273 versus 75.060 for SBP; 71.472 versus 77.548 for DBP); and fewer exposed children recorded elevated blood pressure when compared to unexposed (0.141 versus 0.343 for SBP; 0.199 versus 0.344 for DBP; and 0.286 versus 0.531 overall). Similar findings were obtained using duration as a measure of exposure.
Conclusion
Youth exposed to the FVPP experienced greater physical activity and healthier blood pressure. Findings may indicate novel health-promoting effects of pediatric FVPPs.
Impact
When compared to youth with no exposure, youth exposed to a pediatric fruit and vegetable prescription program recorded greater physical activity and healthier blood pressure.
Youth with high exposure (≥24 months) to the fruit and vegetable prescription program experienced greater physical activity and healthier blood pressure when compared to youth with low exposure (<24 months).
This extends evaluation of pediatric fruit and vegetable prescription programs beyond feasibility and preliminary effectiveness to indicate potential of such programs in positively influencing physical activity and blood pressure of participating youth.
Findings indicate novel health-promoting effects of pediatric fruit and vegetable prescription programs.
... Another important aspect is knowing the child's eating habits (times, foods consumed and rejected, quantity and acceptance of meals), assessing the level of anxiety of the child and family and the parents' attitude towards food refusal. With all this information [35][36][37][38][39], some conditions can be established to facilitate the child and family's relationship with food, as can be seen in Table 2 [40]. ...
One of the most frequent complaints in pediatric offices is the child don’t want to eat, which causes a lot of concern among parents, generating stress and several attempts to insist that the child eat. The reasons for this behavior are diverse, varying with the child's age, family relationships and social contexts. Faced with this challenge, it is important to know some of the different characteristics of children from birth. This article is a non-systematic review whose objective is to present some of the most important characteristics of children, their nutritional needs, the physiology of the development of the digestive system and how neurological and emotional maturation occurs, seeking to integrate all factors related to the act of eating to help health professionals and family members to better understand and resolve this common problem in childhood.
... Já é bem estabelecido na literatura que a maior exposição repetida a alimentos promove o aumento da sua familiaridade pela criança, sendo este um componente chave para melhorar a aceitação aos alimentos (Lafraire et al, 2016;Wadhera et al, 2015). ...
Objective: investigate the factors associated with eating difficulties among preschoolers. Methods: this cross-sectional study was attended by 730 parents of children, aged 4 to 6 years, enrolled at public schools and private. Feeding difficulty was evaluated based on the parents' reports, which included responses to questionnaire items about their parental feeding practices and their children's eating behavior. Socio-demographic information, birth conditions, food history and anthropometric data also were collected. Logistic regression was performed to analyze the data. Results: the prevalence of feeding difficulty reported by parents was 34.1%. The factors associated with feeding difficulty included lower BMI-for-age z-scores, parental history of feeding difficulty, a higher frequency of repeated exposure to new foods, use of food as a reward, children control over feeding, and less guidance on healthy eating. Conclusion: Feeding difficulty is a frequent complaint among parents of preschoolers and this behavior is strongly associated with parental feeding practices.
... This refers to the effects of others' behaviours (particularly parents, but also peers or siblings) or other aspects of the social context that might change eating practices (Birch & Doub, 2014;Birch et al., 2007). Work in this area has typically examined the role of modelling behaviours, such as how children might learn to like foods through watching adults eating those foods (Barthomeuf et al., 2012;Edwards et al., 2022;Wadhera et al., 2015). In such studies, it is often adults' facial expressions or verbal input that have been studied as separate factors, with social influence examined in terms of who is present and what they are doing while the infant is eating. ...
Early infancy is a critical period for the development of food likes and dislikes, but very little is known about the role of the social context and parent-child interaction within this process, and even less about what happens in the home environment. The current paper addresses this issue by examining how and when parents utter food assessments about their infants' eating practices during mealtimes in the home, and the practices through which infant likes become established as knowledge. A data corpus of 77 video-recorded infant mealtimes from six infants (aged 5-9 months) and their parents was analysed using discursive psychology, with a specific focus on the use of object-side and subject-side assessments. Data were recorded in English-speaking family homes in Scotland and Sweden. The analysis highlights three key findings: (1) infants' interactional rights to assess food are invoked during first tastes, (2) infants' food likes are established through anchoring in family food preferences and as shared knowledge among family members, and (3) infants' potential food dislikes are challenged by parents using object-side assessments and claims about previous likes. Parents thus play a crucial role in the establishment of infant food likes through the formulation of subject-side category assessments during early infant mealtimes. The research suggests that more focus should be placed on examining infant eating practices as collaborative and interactional events in everyday contexts.
... Bu çalışmalarda sebzelere tuz ve şeker katılmasının acı tadı bastırdığı ve böylece bu sebzelerin çocuklar tarafından kabulünün arttığını gösteren çalışmalar da mevcuttur. [25][26] Çocukların tatlı tadını anne sütüne benzediği için tercih ettikleri düşünülen çalışmalar bulunmaktadır. Ayrıca şekerli gıdaların farklı duygusal durumlarda farklı etkileri olduğunu öne sürmüşlerdir. ...
Diş çürüklerinin oluşumunda birçok faktör etkili olmasına rağmen önlenebilen bir hastalıktır. Tat genleri de bu etkili faktörler rasında yer almakta olup diş çürüğünün başlıca nedenlerinden biri olan şeker alımında etkili olduğu bilinmektedir. Tat reseptörlerini ifade eden genlerdeki polimorfizmler ile diş çürükleri arasında ilişki olduğu belirlenmiştir. Çocuğun doğumdan önceki yaşamında annenin tükettiği besinlerin, bebeklerin gelecekteki beslenme tercihlerini etkilediği görülmektedir. Aynı şekilde bebekliğin ilk yıllarında tüketilen besinler de bireylerin ilerideki beslenme seçimlerini etkilemektedir. Bazı çalışmalarda tat reseptörlerini ifade eden genlerdeki çeşitli polimorfizmlerin besin seçimleri ile ilişkili olduğu gösterilmiştir. Ayrıca birçok çalışmada TAS1R2, TAS2R38 ve GLUT2 genlerinin polimorfizmleri incelenmiş ve bu çalışmaların çoğunda tat genlerindeki çeşitli polimorfizmlerin DMF-T, dmf-t ve ICDAS değerleri ile ilişkili olduğu ortaya konmuştur. Bu gen polimorfizmlerinin bir kısmının diş çürüğü oluşumunu engellediğini, bir kısmının ise diş çürüğü oluşumuna neden olduğunu belirten çalışmalar mevcuttur. Şekerli gıdaların neden olabileceği kanser, kalp-damar hastalıkları, obezite, hiperlipidemi, hipertansiyon ve diş çürüğü gibi hastalıkların önlenmesinde de genetik faktörlerin etkili olabileceği kanıtlanmıştır. Diş çürüğü ve genetik arasındaki ilişkiyi anlamak, bu hastalığın nedenlerini belirlemeye ve hastalığı önlemek için çürük risk gruplarını değerlendirmeye ve yönetmeye yardımcı olabilir.
... Most notably, if CS + and CSgroups ingest different amounts of a nutrient during training, it will likely influence the specific drive for the taste of that modality during testing 12,51 . Nevertheless, rats' hedonic response to bitter compounds can be made more positive through pairing with sugar, and human studies suggest that children's taste palates are malleable based on positive experiences with bitter vegetables [52][53][54][55] . Thus, despite the constraints of measuring taste memories in a controlled setting, appetitive taste plasticity is very likely an ethologically important process. ...
Tastes are typically thought to evoke innate appetitive or aversive behaviours, prompting food acceptance or rejection. However, research in Drosophila melanogaster indicates that taste responses can be modified through experience-dependent changes in mushroom body circuits. In this study, we develop a novel taste learning paradigm using closed-loop optogenetics. We find that appetitive and aversive taste memories can be formed by pairing gustatory stimuli with optogenetic activation of sensory or dopaminergic neurons associated with reward or punishment. As with olfactory memories, distinct dopaminergic subpopulations drive the parallel formation of short- and long-term appetitive memories. Long-term memories are protein synthesis-dependent and have energetic requirements that are satisfied by a variety of caloric food sources or by direct stimulation of MB-MP1 dopaminergic neurons. Our paradigm affords new opportunities to probe plasticity mechanisms within the taste system and understand the extent to which taste responses are experience dependent.
... Thus, if the children were allowed to consume these products as often and in amounts requested, they would contribute a high amount of sugar calories to the children's daily diets [44]. Another unfavorable finding was that vegetables and dairy foods were not among the children's favorite snacks, as reported by other investigators [45,46]. Unless these foods were regularly consumed with meals, inadequate consumption could lower the children's fiber intake and compromise their body reserves of calcium, potassium, carotenoids, and vitamins C, D, and E, as well as their skeletal growth and development [47]. ...
Snacks provide approximately 27% of daily calories in the diets of children from the USA, where childhood obesity shows an upward trend. Concurrently, grandparents have assumed a more active role in childfeeding of grandchildren. This study measured snack-related practices, beliefs, and awareness of grandparents providing informal childcare (daycare, babysitting, etc.) from rural counties in North Carolina, USA. Participants were 74 grandmothers and three grandfathers. Data were collected using a self-administered paper-and-pencil questionnaire. Descriptive and inferential statistics were calculated (p < 0.05). A mean of 2.75 snacks (range 1 to 9) was offered per caregiving occasion. The strongest influences on snack purchases were perceived healthfulness (53.8%) and grandchildren’s preferences (47.4%). Forty percent believed their snack offerings were “mostly healthy” and 72.4% believed these snacks would have a “mostly good” effect on their grandchildren’s long-term health. Snacks were offered “most of the time” when requested (64.1%) and “never” to stop naughty behavior (76.9%). The mean score on a snack awareness test was 93%; the weakest areas concerned the protein and sugar content of snacks. Self-efficacy for offering healthy snacks was lowest when grandchildren were naughty, and the most frequently perceived barrier was that grandchildren disliked the taste of healthy snacks (51.2%). Grandparents reported health-promoting and obesogenic child feeding practices and beliefs and showed gaps in awareness about the nutrient characteristics of healthy snacks. Educational activities for grandparents are needed concerning the appropriate use of nutrient-dense snacks as part of a healthy diet.
... Indeed, results from this pilot intervention indicated that the Pavlovian conditioning trials increased the capacity of fruit intake to acutely repair negative mood, compared to a stringent control group that also ate fruit and engaged in relaxation at separate times. These results are similar to those of prior studies wherein Pavlovian conditioning has increased preference for neutral and novel foods, as well as for vegetables (36)(37)(38)(39). Moreover, these results are promising because several naturalistic and laboratory studies document that negative mood shifts dietary choices away from fruits and towards traditional comfort foods that are high in calories, fat, sugar, and/or salt (for a review, see Ref. (23)). ...
Objective:
Perceived stress, lower fruit intake, and comfort eating are all risk factors for chronic disease. The present pilot study aimed to simultaneously mitigate all three risk factors by applying Pavlovian conditioning to change the nature of comfort eating. Specifically, stressed participants underwent a Pavlovian conditioning intervention designed to elicit comforting effects of fruit intake and thereby reduce negative mood while promoting fruit intake.
Methods:
We developed a seven-dose Pavlovian conditioning intervention wherein participants temporally paired together Progressive Muscle Relaxation (unconditioned stimulus) with fruit intake (conditioned stimulus) daily for 1 week. Participants (N = 100, mean [standard deviation] age = 20.7 [4.6] years; 74% female) with moderate to high levels of baseline perceived stress were randomized to the intervention or an active explicitly unpaired control group, wherein the Progressive Muscle Relaxation and fruit intake also occurred but were not temporally paired together. After the intervention, participants' negative mood was assessed immediately before and after fruit intake to assess conditioning effects. Then, participants logged their regular food intake for 4 days using the MyFitnessPal smartphone app.
Results:
After the intervention, fruit intake acutely improved negative mood to a greater extent among the intervention versus control group (F(1,98) = 3.99, p = .048, = 0.039). However, there was not a significant between-group difference in intake of fruit or traditional comfort foods at postintervention.
Conclusions:
Repeated pairing of fruit intake with a reliable distress-reducing activity led to the conditioning of comforting effects of fruit intake. Further refinement of the intervention design is necessary to translate this conditioned association to actual intake of fruit and other foods.
... Previous research has indicated that simply giving fruits and vegetables to children is likely to have an important influence on dietary intake through familiarization [21]. Repeated exposure is, in fact, a key mechanism through which youth food acceptance occurs [58,59]. ...
Limited access to fresh foods is a barrier to adequate consumption of fruits and vegetables among youth, particularly in low-income communities. The current study sought to examine preliminary effectiveness of a fruit and vegetable prescription program (FVPP), which provided one USD 15 prescription to pediatric patients during office visits. The central hypothesis was that exposure to this FVPP is associated with improvements in dietary patterns and food security. This non-controlled longitudinal intervention trial included a sample of caregiver–child dyads at one urban pediatric clinic who were exposed to the FVPP for 1 year. Patients received one USD 15 prescription for fresh produce during appointments. A consecutive sample of caregivers whose children were 8–18 years of age were invited to participate in the study. Dyads separately completed surveys that evaluated food security and dietary behaviors prior to receipt of their first prescription and again at 12 months. A total of 122 dyads completed surveys at baseline and 12-month follow-up. Approximately half of youth were female (52%), and most were African American (63%). Mean caregiver-reported household food security improved from baseline to 12 months (p < 0.001), as did mean child-reported food security (p = 0.01). Additionally, child-reported intake of vegetables (p = 0.001), whole grains (p = 0.001), fiber (p = 0.008), and dairy (p < 0.001) improved after 12 months of exposure to the FVPP. This study provides evidence that pediatric FVPPs may positively influence food security and the dietary patterns of children.
... This is in line with the study of Laureati, Bergamaschi and Pagliarini, which showed that a school-based exposure intervention was more effective in younger children [68]. As stated by Wadhera et al. [73], the effectiveness of this strategy on increasing liking for and intake of vegetables depends not only on age, but also on vegetable type. This is supported by Zeinstra et al. [29], who indicated that while repeated exposure is effective for increasing the intake of some vegetables, it might not be the best strategy for more familiar or blander tasting vegetables. ...
Fruit and vegetables are important components of a healthy diet, but unfortunately many children are not consuming enough to meet the recommendations. Therefore, it is crucial to develop strategies towards increasing the acceptance of this food group. This study aims to investigate the effect of different repeated exposure frequencies on fruit and vegetable acceptance using a novel vegetable, daikon, among 3–6-year-old children. One hundred and fifty-nine children participated in this study. Eight kindergarten teams were assigned to one of the following groups: Three different intervention groups with varying exposure frequencies, but all receiving seven exposures: Twice a week (n = 47), once a week (n = 32) and once every second week (n = 30), and a control group (n = 50). Liking and familiarity of daikon and other vegetables (cucumber, celery, celeriac, broccoli, cauliflower and beetroot) were assessed at baseline, post-intervention and two follow up sessions (3 and 6 months) to test for potential generalisation effects and observe the longevity of the obtained effects. Intake of daikon was measured at all exposures and test sessions. Results showed significant increases (p ≤ 0.05) in liking and intake of daikon for all three frequencies and the control group. Over the exposures, intake of daikon increased until the 4th exposure for all the groups, where a plateau was reached. No systematic generalisation effects were found. Repeated exposure was a successful approach to increase liking and intake of a novel vegetable with all exposure frequencies to be effective, and no particular exposure frequency can be recommended. Even the few exposures the control group received were found to be sufficient to improve intake and liking over 6 months (p ≤ 0.05), indicating that exposures to low quantities of an unfamiliar vegetable may be sufficient.
... Evidence indicates that it is critically important to develop healthy food preferences and eating habits in children because these can persist into adolescence and adulthood (Birch et al., 2007;Cooke, 2007;Kelder et al., 1994;Wadhera et al., 2015). Many interventions therefore aim to nudge children toward healthier eating habits to obtain long-term and even lifetime improvements in nutrition and health. ...
School gardens have become a widely used approach to influence children's food knowledge, preferences and choices in low-and high-income countries alike. However, evidence indicates that such programs are more effective at influencing food knowledge and preferences than actual food choices. Such finding may occur because school gardens insufficiently influence the food behavior of parents and because healthy food items are not always available in children's homes. We tested this hypothesis using a one-year cluster randomized controlled trial in Nepal with 15 treatment and 15 control schools and a matched sample of 779 schoolchildren (aged 8-12) and their caregivers. Data were collected before and after the intervention during the 2018-2019 school year. In addition, children's food consumption was monitored using a monthly food logbook. Average treatment effects were quantified with a double-difference estimator. For caregivers, the intervention led to a 26% increase in their food and nutrition knowledge (p < 0.001), a 5% increase in their agricultural knowledge (p = 0.022), a 10% increase in their liking for vegetables (p < 0.001), and a 15% increase in home garden productivity (p = 0.073). For children, the intervention had no discernible effect on food and nutrition knowledge (p = 0.666) but led to a 6% increase in their liking for vegetables (p = 0.070), healthy food practices (p < 0.001), and vegetable consumption (October-December +15%; p = 0.084; January-March +26%; p = 0.017; April-June +26%; p = 0.088). The results therefore indicate both schools and parents matter for nudging children toward healthier food choices.
... However, a diet rich in vegetables helps prevent diseases, such as childhood obesity (Anderson and Butcher, 2006;Leahy et al., 2008;Aranceta-Batrina and P� erez-Rodrigo, 2016) and cancer during adulthood (Van Duyn and Pivonka, 2000). Furthermore, the patterns of food liking and consumption that have been learned early in life may also last at least until young adulthood (Nicklaus et al., 2005;Pearson et al., 2009: Wadhera et al., 2015b so are therefore associated with the state of health in adulthood (Qi and Niu, 2015;Yzydorczyk et al., 2015;Rolland-Cachera et al., 2016). This prior research allows the hypothesis that the flavors that lead to food choices made during childhood have implications for the individuals' future state of health. ...
Relatively little is known about how mental development during childhood parallels brain maturation, and how these processes may have an impact on changes in eating behavior: in particular in vegetable consumption. This review aims to bridge this research gap by integrating both recent findings from the study on brain maturation with recent results from research on cognitive development. Developmental human neuroscientific research in the field of the sensory systems and on the relationship between children’s cognitive development and vegetable consumption serve as benchmarks. We have identified brain maturation and mental growth patterns that may affect child vegetable consumption and conclude that both of these developmental patterns partially match with the Piagetian theory of development. Additionally, we conclude that a series of potential modulating factors, such as learning-related experiences, may lead to fluctuations in the course of those particular developmental patterns, and thus vegetable consumption patterns. Therefore, we propose a theoretical predictive model of child vegetable consumption in which the nature of the relationship between its correlational and/or causal components should be studied in the future by adopting an integral research perspective of the three targeted study levels: brain, cognition and behavior.
... 104,105 However, some have argued that students are too frequently offered limited varieties within each food group (particularly fruits and vegetables), which still places undue limitations on choice. 35,128 Still others have advised that students may need repeated exposures to some foods before a liking can be established 128,129 and suggest that an examination of school food provisioning schemes that incorporate some degree of student choice within established limits is warranted. 128 School administrators may also consider modifying lunchtime schedules, such as scheduling lunch later in the day so that students are not still satiated from breakfast. ...
Emerging research demonstrates unexpected relationships between food waste, nutrition, and environmental sustainability that should be considered when developing waste reduction strategies. In this narrative review, we synthesize these linkages and the evidence related to drivers of food waste and reduction strategies at the consumer level in the United States. Higher diet quality is associated with greater food waste, which results in significant quantities of wasted resources (e.g., energy, fertilizer) and greenhouse gas emissions. Food waste also represents waste of micronutrients that could otherwise theoretically fill nutritional gaps for millions of people. To make progress on these multiple fronts simultaneously, nutrition professionals must expand beyond their traditional purview, into more interdisciplinary arenas that make connections with food waste and environmental sustainability.
... There are basically two kinds of repeated exposure: «[repeated]mere exposure, that is, when exposure to a neutral [vegetablerelated] flavor does not follow any consequence, and [repeated] associative conditioning, when exposure to the neutral [vegetable-related] flavor is followed by a given consequence, either positive, such as nutritive (caloric) ingestion or hedonic pleasure, or negative, such as nausea or emesis, due to repeated pairings of the neutral [vegetable-related] flavor with a high caloric substance, [such as honey or olive oil] or an already preferred flavor [such as the sweetness of a certain sauce], or an aversive substance [a disliked dressing], respectively» (Rohlfs Dom ınguez 2018, 2230). An increased familiarity with the stimulus, in this case, the flavor of this vegetable, and consequently, an increased liking of that stimulus, that is, the vegetable-related flavor underlies the effectiveness of repeated exposure (Zajonc 1968;Hill 1978;Bornstein 1989;Wadhera, Capaldi, and Wilkie 2015). As a consequence, an increased consumption of that particular or similar vegetable usually occurs. ...
The flavor of the maternal diet is transferred to women’s amniotic fluid and breast milk, so that the amniotic fluid and breast milk become natural transmitters of flavor-related information developing babies are exposed to at early stages of development. We aimed to review the available evidence regarding the impact of early exposure to flavor on child vegetable intake, and to discuss for the first time possible effects of availability or unavailability of particular vegetables because of geographic reasons on these exposures, a variable that has been forgotten in the literature. We have focused on studies that have examined the association of prenatal and early postnatal -at breastfeeding- exposures to vegetable-related flavors with vegetable consumption in children. We have identified that this particular kind of exposures may lead to increases in children’s acceptance, liking of and preference for the vegetables. Especially novel has been to identify that these effects might be modulated not only by the particular flavor of the vegetable -bitter vs. sweet- and the time of exposure -prenatal vs. breastfeeding- but also by vegetable availability because of geographic reasons of the place of residence of the mother, a variable that should be taken into account in future research. This would give rise to a new research line aimed at solving the mentioned gap. Finally, a theoretical model of cyclical processes that might explain the origin and perpetuation of transmission of particular patterns of vegetable consumption and vegetables-composed dishes over time in a given population is also included here as another new contribution.
... (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.) height of neophobia (Wadhera, Capaldi Phillips, & Wilkie, 2015). Specialized approaches may also be needed with populations that are particularly sensitive to certain attributes, like bitterness. ...
Vegetables are an important but under consumed part of a healthy diet. There is growing interest in promoting vegetable acceptance and consumption among infants to help establish life-long healthy eating patterns. A recent survey of commercial baby food products in the United States (U.S.) by Moding and colleagues revealed a lack of variety in the types of vegetables offered. Most notably, there were no commercially available single, dark green vegetable products. Instead dark green vegetables were often mixed with fruits or red/orange vegetables (e.g., squash) that provide additional sweetness. In order for liking for vegetables to be learned, the flavors from the vegetables must still be perceptible in the mixture. Thus, the objective of the research reported here was to understand the sensory profiles of vegetable-containing stage 2 infant products commercially available in the U.S. and how ingredient composition affects flavor profiles. We performed descriptive analysis to quantitatively profile the sensory properties of 21 commercial vegetable-containing infant foods and one prepared in our laboratory. Eleven experienced panelists participated in 14.5 h of lexicon generation and training prior to rating all 22 products (in triplicate) for 14 taste, flavor, and texture attributes. Products that contained fruit were not only sweeter than products that did not contain fruit but were also higher in fruit flavors and lower in vegetable flavors. In general, sensory profiles were driven by the first ingredient in the product. Because few products had dark green vegetables as a first ingredient, dark green vegetable flavor was not prevalent in this category. This suggests the sensory profiles of commercially available infant vegetables foods may not be adequate to facilitate increased acceptance of green vegetables.
... In a previous cross-sectional study which included a sample of 2801 American children, high fruit juice intake was also associated with an increased adiposity gain (11). On the other hand, a high level of intake of fruits and vegetables (F&V) and dairy products was related with a lower risk of obesity in American and European children (11)(12)(13). ...
Objective: The aim of this study was to identify dietary patterns (DPs) in European adolescents and to examine the association between perceptions of healthy eating and the obtained DPs.
Method: A multinational cross-sectional study was carried out in adolescents aged 12.5 to 17.5 years and 2,027 (44.9% males) were considered for analysis. A self-reported questionnaire with information on food choices and preferences, including perceptions of healthy eating, and two 24-hour dietary recalls were used. Principal component analysis was used to obtain sex-specific DPs, and linear analyses of covariance were used to compare DPs according to perceptions of healthy eating.
Results: Three and four DPs for boys and girls were obtained. In boys and girls, there were significant associations between some perceptions about healthy food and the Breakfast-DP (p < 0.05). In boys, Breakfast-DP and Healthy Beverage-DP were associated with the perception of the own diet as healthy (p < 0.05). Healthy Beverage-DP was associated with those disliking fruits and vegetables (p < 0.05). Girls considering the own diet as healthy were associated with Mediterranean-DP, Breakfast-DP, and Unhealthy Beverage and Meat-DP (p < 0.05). The perception of snacking as a necessary part of a healthy diet was associated with Breakfast-DP in both genders (p < 0.05).
Conclusions: In European adolescents, perceptions of healthy eating were mainly associated with a DP characterized by foods consumed at breakfast. Future studies should further explore these findings in order to implement health promotion programs to improve healthy eating habits in adolescents.
... 5,6 Individual factors including taste preference and liking were also important predictors of child vegetable intake. 7 Results from a recent meta-analysis of parent-targeted home-based interventions indicated that increased taste exposure resulted in significant improvements in child vegetable intake. 3 Experimental studies involving young children and school-aged children have shown that several strategies influenced child vegetable intake at home or school. ...
Purpose. To qualitatively assess barriers and facilitators to implementing specific behavioral strategies to increase child vegetable intake during home dinner meals by low-income parents. Method. Parents (n = 49) of children (9-12 years) were asked to implement 1 behavioral strategy following each of 6 weekly cooking classes at community centers. Example strategies included serving vegetables first, serving 2 vegetables, and using a bigger spoon to serve vegetables. The following week, parents discussed how they used the strategy and barriers and facilitators to its use. Discussions were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and coded separately by strategy using NVivo Pro 11 software. Inductive, comparative thematic analyses were used to identify themes by strategy. Results. Most participants were multiethnic women aged 30 to 39 years with low food security. Time and scheduling conflicts limited involvement of children in vegetable preparation (Child Help strategy). The type of foods served and an unfamiliar serving style inhibited use of the MyPlate and Available/Visible strategies, respectively. Children’s dislike of vegetables limited use of the Serve Vegetables First and Serve 2 Vegetables strategies. Ease of use promoted use of the Bigger Spoon strategy. Conclusion. Educators could tailor application of specific parent strategies for low-income families based on child and environmental characteristics.
... For instance, some scholars (Amponsah et al., 2016;Astee & Kishnani, 2010) claim that this exaggeration is because of vegetables and herbs being the dominant produce from the sub-sector. The narrative in the conventional literature suggests that the calorie content of vegetables and herbs is low (Darmon, Darmon, Maillot, & Drewnowski, 2005) for which reason they are associated with lower risks of chronic diseases (Wadhera, Capaldi Phillips, & Wilkie, 2015). In this regard, the vegetables and herbs can only perform supplementary roles in food security. ...
The debate on the role of urban agriculture in the sustainable city discourse remains unresolved in the conventional literature. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to review relevant literature to clarify the role of urban agriculture in sustainable cities. The search for literature was guided by themes such as: a) urban agricultural practices, b) indicators for the measurement of sustainable cities, c) economic, social and environmental benefits of urban agriculture, and d) negative effects of urban agriculture on the city. The results from a synthesis of the literature indicate that urban agriculture supports the economic, social and environmental sustainability of cities. However, if the discussion gives credence to only the economic dimension of sustainability, then urban agriculture loses the debate. This is because the economic benefits of prime city land that is used used for non-agricultural purposes (such as commercial or industrial) is profound. However, the social and environmental functions of responsible urban agriculture, particularly in reducing the rift between urbanisation and nature, may be difficult to quantify. These social and environmental functions underscore the importance of urban agriculture in the city landscape. The paper concludes by arguing that focussing on only economic sustainability in the urban agriculture-sustainable city discourse is a travesty of the idea of sustainable development. The paper presents practical steps that can be taken to preserve agriculture in cities towards their sustainability.
... This means that if farmers use such lands, which are small in nature, to produce cereals and root and tuber crops for commercial purposes, the returns are likely to be low. They are more suitable for household food production; however, vegetables and herbs make limited contributions to urban food security because of their lowcalorie content (Darmon et al., 2005), for which reason they are associated with lower risks of chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, several cancers and obesity (Wadhera et al., 2015). In this vein, city authorities should see rural agriculture as complementary to urban and peri-urban agriculture. ...
Agriculture, through its economic, social and ecological functions, presents potentials for meeting some of the targets of the 11th Sustainable Development Goal (SDG). The targets include: a) reducing the adverse environmental impact of cities (target 11.6), b) providing access to green spaces (target 11.7) and c) promoting resource-use efficiency in cities (target 11b). Nevertheless, cities, especially those in the global south, are struggling to sustain agriculture due to rapid and uncontrolled urbanisation. How to maintain (peri-) urban agriculture in cities and their peripheries in an era of increasing land scarcity is unclear in the conventional literature. In this regard, this study set out to determine appropriate practices globally that can foster the sustenance of urban and peri-urban agriculture and determine their applicability to the Ghanaian context. Even though Ghana remains the focus of the discussion, the generality of the characteristics of the cities in Sub-Saharan Africa makes the practices useful to Sub-Saharan African region. The study obtained the required data, through a review of literature, from databases such as Scopus, PubMed, MeSH and ProQuest. The authors complemented the literature from these conventional sources with literature from grey sources such as institutional websites and online media publications. The results of the literature review show that container gardening, backyard gardening, and farming on vacant lands and marginal lands can hold the key to preserving agriculture within the cities. However, these models are more appropriate for the production of vegetables and herbs. Therefore, urban and peri-urban agriculture may concentrate on the production of herbs and vegetables, to complement the food supply from rural agriculture. The Purchase of Development Right and expropriation and zoning of peri-urban land for agricultural purposes appear to be important strategies for promoting access to land for peri-urban agriculture. The strategies call for revisions of city legislation and the land use planning process to legitimise and promote agriculture in cities and their peripheries.
... Several studies demonstrate the value of a number of strategies for increasing vegetable liking . Repeated exposure, the use of rewards and the provision of positive education or experiences have all been found to increase liking for vegetables Appleton, Hemingway, Rajska, & Hartwell, 2018;Nicklaus, 2016;Wadhera, Capaldi-Philips, & Wilkie, 2015). Furthermore, while many studies have so far been conducted in children, success using these techniques for increasing liking and preferences for foods in other age-groups has also been demonstrated (Appleton, 2013;Appleton, Gentry, & Shepherd, 2006;Mobini, Chambers, & Yeomans, 2007), including in adolescents (Ratcliffe, Merrigan, Rogers, & Goldberg, 2011). ...
Vegetable consumption in adolescents is reported to be low, at least in part, due to the unappealing sensory properties of vegetables, such as bitter tastes. However, not all vegetables have unappealing sensory properties, and strategies to improve vegetable consumption may benefit from wider consideration. This work aimed to understand the individual characteristics in adolescents from four European countries associated with the regular consumption and liking of vegetables with more appealing and less appealing sensory properties. Adolescents from Denmark (N = 178), the UK (N = 155), France (N = 206) and Italy (N = 197) completed self-report questionnaires to assess all variables. We found higher self-reported consumption and liking of vegetables with more appealing than less appealing sensory properties. Regular consumption of both types of vegetable was associated with healthier eating habits and a higher liking for each vegetable type. Liking for vegetables with more appealing sensory properties was higher in individuals with lower food neophobia, healthier eating habits, higher interest in consuming foods for sensory reasons and higher liking for vegetables with less appealing properties. Liking for vegetables with less appealing sensory properties was higher in individuals with lower food neophobia, higher concern for the consumption of natural foods, and higher liking for vegetables with more appealing properties. Some gender and country-specific differences were also found. Our findings suggest that strategies to increase vegetable consumption in adolescents should focus on increasing healthy eating in general, increasing vegetable liking, and may benefit from reducing food neophobia and enhancing the positive sensory and natural aspects of vegetables.
... There are a variety of reasons why children do not eat enough ve- getables (Birch, 2007;Blanchette & Brug, 2005;Cooke, 2007;Knai, Pomerleau, Lock, & McKee, 2006). However, children's rejection of the taste of vegetables has consistently been identified as a dominant bar- rier to higher intakes ( Appleton et al., 2016;Brug, Tak, te Velde, Bere, & de Bourdeaudhuij, 2008;Poelman, Delahunty, & de Graaf, 2017;Wadhera, Capaldi Phillips, & Wilkie, 2015). Food liking (and in parti- cular rejection/disliking) plays an instrumental role in children's food choice and consumption (Cooke, 2007;Mennella, Bobowski, & Reed, 2016;Mennella, Reiter, & Daniels, 2016). ...
... Although some studies have investigated gender differences in food choice among children and adults (e.g., Johnson, Gerson, Porter, & Petrillo, 2015;Shiferaw et al., 2012), the current study explores whether the imposition of gender onto foods affects children's food choice; and whether children impose gender on foods themselves. As a growing literature (Birch & Anzman, 2010;Marty, Chambaron, Nicklaus, & Monnery-Patris, 2018;Wadhera, Phillips, & Wilkie, 2015) attempts to explain why children make the food choices they do, understanding whether children choose or avoid certain foods because of their gender associations will be an important contribution. ...
Children at the peak age of cognitive gender rigidity (age 3–6 years) demonstrate preference for gender-typed activities, toys, and peers. This study explores whether this preference extends to gender-typed food. A total of 212 Virginia preschool and elementary school children performed a card sort of food images and chose between snacks with gender-consistent and gender-inconsistent packaging. Chi-squared analyses revealed that children were more likely to choose a snack in gender-consistent packaging, even when a tastier snack in gender-inconsistent packaging was available. Further, children consistently sorted pink-frosted cupcakes for girls and blue-frosted cupcakes for boys; and a subset of children who imposed gender onto other foods did so consistently (e.g., hamburgers for boys). Consistent with other evidence of children's gender rigidity, these findings support cognitive developmental theories of gender and add a gender-based explanation of children's food choice.
... First, acknowledging that students have diverse taste preferences that vary by background and over time, salad bars potentially offer greater FV item variety (i.e., primary reinforcer) allowing children with diverse backgrounds to find and select more desirable items, or items that look more desirable in context (e.g. raw carrots on salad bar vs. stewed carrots in entrée), resulting in greater consumption while being exposed to novel items [33]. Present-biased preferences between choices posits that individuals make unhealthy choices that appear to place inordinate weight on immediate benefits of an unhealthy option relative to delayed, larger costs in the future (a temporal discounting of relative consequences). ...
Building healthy fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption habits early in life is critical for primary prevention. However, U.S. youth do not come close to meeting national recommendations for FV intake. School-lunch salad bars are one of the most heavily promoted ways to meet FV guidelines. Contrary to popular belief, no rigorous randomized trials have examined whether salad bars increase students' FV consumption. This paper describes the design and rationale of a federally funded trial to evaluate whether introducing salad bars in elementary, middle, and high schools affects students' FV consumption and waste during lunch. A cluster factorial randomized trial will test new salad bars against waitlist controls, with and without an additional marketing intervention (N = 36 schools, N = 6804 students: n = 12 elementary, n = 12 middle and n = 12 high schools). Objective plate waste measurements of individual student's selection of FVs, consumption, and waste will be conducted using digital scales. Primary aim includes comparing FV consumption in schools without salad bars to those with new salad bars by grade level. Secondary aims include: a) whether FV marketing impacts the success of salad bars for FV consumption; b) whether salad bars differentially result in more FV waste compared to traditional serving methods; c) cost-benefit of using salad bars for consumption over traditional serving methods. When complete, this study stands to be one of the most definitive on the effectiveness of salad bars and contextual factors impacting their success. Findings will provide evidence for how to best spend limited federal dollars to improve FV intake in schools.
Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03283033 (date of registration: 9/14/2017).
... These findings suggest that strategies to increase vegetable consumption in adolescents should focus on increasing healthy eating, and increasing vegetable liking. Various techniques can be used to change taste preferences (5) . From our data, increasing liking for both bitter and sweet vegetables may also benefit from strategies to reduce neophobia. ...
Liking for and consumption of vegetables in European adolescents: Healthy eating, liking, food neophobia and food choice motives - Volume 77 Issue OCE3 - K.M. Appleton, C. Dinnella, S. Spinelli, D. Morizet, L. Saulais, A. Hemingway, E. Monteleone, L. Depezay, FJA Perez-Cueto, H. Hartwell
... While vegetable intake is associated with positive health outcomes [1], less than 10% of U.S. children meet the minimum recommendations for vegetable intake [2]. Liking of vegetables is a key precursor of intake [3] as children eat what they like and avoid what they dislike [4]. Improving liking may increase intake of vegetables by children and result in health benefits. ...
Child vegetable intake falls far below the minimum recommended levels. Knowing which vegetables children may like help those responsible for providing vegetables to children to improve intake. The objective of this study was to measure vegetable liking for a wide variety of vegetables by a racially and ethnically diverse population of 9–12-year old children from low-income families. Children rated their liking of 35 vegetables using a 10-point hedonic scale. We tabulated the number of children that found each vegetable acceptable (ratings of ‘okay’ or above) and the number that found each vegetable unacceptable (ratings below ‘okay’). More than 50% of children who had tried a vegetable considered it acceptable. A large majority of the vegetables had mean ratings in the acceptable range. Corn was the most liked vegetable, closely followed by potatoes, lettuce, and carrots. Artichoke had the lowest mean liking, followed by onion and beets. We found children liked a wide variety of vegetables which offers counter evidence to the commonly held perception that children do not like vegetables.
... While vegetable intake is associated with positive health outcomes [1], less than 10% of U.S. children meet the minimum recommendations for vegetable intake [2]. Liking of vegetables is a key precursor of intake [3] as children eat what they like and avoid what they dislike [4]. Improving liking may increase intake of vegetables by children and result in health benefits. ...
... Product quality is a complex issue: it encompasses visual characteristics, such as size, color, shape, and defects, all encompassed in general appearance; physical and chemical properties, such as texture, and mineral and vitamin contents; and flavor and other organoleptic characteristics. Thus, fruits and vegetables are also appreciated for their beneficial health effects in humans (FAO, 2011;Havens et al., 2012;McGill et al., 2013;Wadhera et al., 2015). Once produce is harvested, postharvest handling practices do not improve the quality attained in the field; they can only slow down the rate at which deterioration occurs. ...
... In adults, it is well recognized that several exposures to a food are needed for a food to become liked. Indeed, the mechanisms of 'familiarity' (Zajonc, 1968) and 'learned safety' (Kalat & Rozin, 1973) are particularly powerful to increase a positive response towards a food when its consumption is not paired with negative feelings like a gastrointestinal discomfort (Aldridge, Dovey, & Halford, 2009;Keller, 2014;Nicklaus, 2017;Wadhera, Capaldi Phillips, & Wilkie, 2015). Offering exclusively vegetables or fruits from the very start of complementary feeding (first 18 days), via a repeated exposure effect, promotes acceptance of vegetables or fruit depending on the repeatedly offered food (Barends, de Vries, Mojet, & de Graaf, 2013). ...
Infancy and old age are two crucial periods in the human life span. During infancy, early exposure to a large variety of flavor and texture plays a key role in shaping food acceptability and later eating habits. In elderly people, food history is one of the major determinants of food choice. In both populations, sensory and oral motor skills are important determinants of food choice. During eating, the formation of a food bolus that can be safely swallowed is a complex oral process, and the oral capacity to perform this process impacts directly food acceptability or rejection both in infants or elderly. Food liking in elderly is also impacted by chemosensory impairment. The specificities of these populations imply to conduct active researches aiming at proposing novel food products better adapted to them but also guidelines to caregivers who are widely involved in their feeding practices.
... Once the vegetable is accepted, they should gradually offer it in plainer forms without being sweetened. Notably, this is not a recommendation to hide target foods-although this is associated with increased short-term intake, it does not increase acceptance of the target food 18 and may lead to a loss of trust and increased anxiety if the child discovers it. ► Avoid negativity: Parental pressure to eat is associated with higher food neophobia and decreased enjoyment of eating. 1 8 Parents should not punish children for selective eating, and a recommended time limit for meals is 30 min. ...
Feeding a child is an emotive experience. Selective eating (often referred to as fussy eating) is a typical part of early childhood but can cause significant anxiety to parents. This article covers the factors that influence the development of selective eating, the key points to elicit in history and examination, and evidence-based advice for parents. © © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.
This study aimed to investigate the degree of FN in a representative population of Korean adults and the effects of FN on food recognition, consumption experience, liking, and willingness‐to‐try across four food categories with varying levels of familiarity. Significant differences in FN were observed based on gender, region of residence, education level, occupation, income, and international experience. Lower familiar food categories resulted in greater differences in liking and willingness‐to‐try scores among the three groups. Prior consumption experience correlated with higher liking and willingness‐to‐try scores. Higher FN levels were associated with lower liking and willingness‐to‐try scores. The influence of consumption experience on liking and willingness‐to‐try varied with FN level, being more pronounced in the high FN group. These results support that FN affects consumption experience, liking, and willingness‐to‐try food items.
Tastes typically evoke innate behavioral responses that can be broadly categorized as acceptance or rejection. However, research in Drosophila melanogaster indicates that taste responses also exhibit plasticity through experience-dependent changes in mushroom body circuits. In this study, we develop a novel taste learning paradigm using closed-loop optogenetics. We find that appetitive and aversive taste memories can be formed by pairing gustatory stimuli with optogenetic activation of sensory neurons or dopaminergic neurons encoding reward or punishment. As with olfactory memories, distinct dopaminergic subpopulations drive the parallel formation of short- and long-term appetitive memories. Long-term memories are protein synthesis-dependent and have energetic requirements that are satisfied by a variety of caloric food sources or by direct stimulation of MB-MP1 dopaminergic neurons. Our paradigm affords new opportunities to probe plasticity mechanisms within the taste system and understand the extent to which taste responses depend on experience.
This work investigated the value of highlighting the enjoyment conferred by fruit for encouraging fruit consumption. Study 1 investigated the effects on fruit consumption of visualizing eating fruit that was either enjoyable, not enjoyable, or was unassociated with enjoyment. Study 2 investigated the effects on fruit consumption of health promotion posters that featured either enjoyable or less enjoyable fruit. Both studies used an independent-groups design, where young adults (Study 1, N = 142; Study 2, N = 221) were randomized to conditions, and outcomes: intentions to consume fruit, attitudes towards fruit, immediate fruit selection, subsequent fruit consumption; and a range of characteristics likely to be associated with fruit and vegetable consumption were assessed. In Study 1, higher intentions to consume fruit and more positive attitudes towards fruit were associated with higher likely enjoyment of the fruit visualised, higher fruit liking in general and higher fruit-related self-efficacy (smallest Beta = 0.270, p = 0.02). In Study 2, similar effects were found for likely enjoyment of the fruit featured on a poster; higher likely enjoyment also predicted greater immediate fruit selection (smallest Beta = 0.122, p = 0.03). These outcomes were also associated with variables often associated with fruit and vegetable consumption. Subsequent fruit consumption was only associated with past fruit consumption (smallest Beta = 0.340, p = 0.05). These two studies (Study 1 using visualisation, Study 2 using health promotion posters) highlight a role for enjoyment for encouraging fruit consumption. The value of enjoyment and the simplicity of the poster intervention particularly should be noted.
In “Puppies, Pigs, and People: Eating Meat and Marginal Cases,” Alastair Norcross (2004) uses a thought experiment he calls “Fred's Basement” to argue that consuming factory-farmed meat is morally equivalent to torturing and killing puppies in order to enjoy the taste of chocolate. Thus, he concludes that consuming factory-farmed meat is morally wrong. Although Norcross leaves open the possibility that consuming humanely raised meat is morally permissible, I contend that his basic argumentative approach rules it out. In this article, therefore, I extend Norcross's thought experiment in hopes of convincing readers that consuming humanely raised meat is morally wrong.
This review details the proceedings of a Pennington Biomedical scientific symposium titled, “What Should I Eat and Why? The Environmental, Genetic, and Behavioral Determinants of Food Choice.” The symposium was designed to review the literature about energy homeostasis, particularly related to food choice and feeding behaviors, from psychology to physiology. This review discusses the intrinsic determinants of food choice, including biological mechanisms (genetics), peripheral and central signals, brain correlates, and the potential role of the microbiome. This review also address the extrinsic determinants (environment) of food choice within our physical and social environments. Finally, this review reports the current treatment practices for the clinical management of eating‐induced overweight and obesity. An improved understanding of these determinants will inform best practices for the clinical treatment and prevention of obesity. Strategies paired with systemic shifts in our public health policies and changes in our “obesogenic” environment will be most effective at attenuating the obesity epidemic.
Flavor-consequence learning refers to learned associations between flavor stimuli and post-oral consequences of food that affect food selection, amount eaten and affect. Forms of flavor-consequence learning include flavor aversions, flavor avoidance, conditioned satiety, expected satiety and appetition. Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery (RYGB) and other bariatric procedures alter gastrointestinal processing of food in a number of ways. Thus, it is plausible that these procedures alter post-oral unconditioned stimuli that support flavor-consequence learning, leading to altered food selection, amount eaten, and affect. Surprisingly, however, there is almost no research on the role of flavor-consequence learning in the effects of bariatric surgery on appetite. This issue urgently warrants investigation.
Little is known about the food preferences of children with a feeding disorder and medical diagnoses. Therefore, we conducted repeated paired-stimulus-preference assessments with foods to which we either exposed or did not expose 3 children with a feeding disorder and medical diagnoses during clinical treatment. Responding was relatively equivalent for exposure and nonexposure foods throughout the preference assessments, suggesting that preferences for foods did not change due to exposure during treatment.
Objective:
Modelling has previously been demonstrated to encourage healthy eating, but the importance of modelling the behaviour versus modelling the positive consequences of the behaviour is unknown. This work investigated the impact of modelling carrot intake (the behaviour) and modelling carrot enjoyment (the positive consequences) on subsequent liking and consumption of carrots and sweetcorn.
Methods:
155 children aged 7-10 years were randomized to hear a story where fictional characters consumed a picnic with either: no mention of carrot sticks (control) (N = 45); mention of carrot sticks that all characters ate (modelling intake) (N = 60); or mention of carrot sticks that the characters like (modelling enjoyment) (N = 50). Carrot and sweetcorn liking and intake were measured before and after the story during a 5 min task.
Results:
Carrot liking and intake after a story were higher following the story modelling carrot enjoyment compared to the stories not modelling enjoyment (smallest β = 0.16, p = 0.05), and in those with higher pre-story carrot liking and intake (smallest β = 0.25, p < 0.01). Sweetcorn liking and intake after a story were associated with pre-story sweetcorn liking and intake (smallest β = 0.28, p < 0.01), and sweetcorn intake was lower following the story modelling carrot enjoyment compared to the stories not modelling enjoyment (β = -0.17, p = 0.04).
Conclusions:
These findings demonstrate a role for modelling enjoyment to encourage vegetable liking and intake, although effects sizes were small. These findings also suggest a benefit from modelling the positive consequences of a behaviour for encouraging healthy food intake in children, while limited effects were found for modelling the behaviour itself.
The mammalian infant experiences a variety of flavors prior to weaning because volatile compounds, such as vanilla, are transferred from the mother's diet to her milk. Following nursing mothers' consumption of vanilla flavor, their infants breast-fed longer and consumed more milk as compared to when their mothers consumed the diluent alone. Consistent with these findings, the bottle-fed infants' responses to vanilla-flavored formula were altered relative to their responses to the unflavored formula. In a short-term preference test, experimentally naive infants sucked more vigorously when feeding the vanilla-flavored formula. In a second test that encompassed an entire feeding, they spent more time feeding initially when the formula was flavored with vanilla. This differential responsiveness to the vanilla-flavored formula was absent following these two exposures to vanilla, however. These data support the hypothesis that flavors, either consumed by the mother and transmitted to her milk or added to formula, are detected by the infant and serve to modulate feeding. They also suggest that experience with a flavor in milk alters the infant's responsiveness to that flavor during subsequent feedings. It is hypothesized that under the natural condition of breast-feeding, infants become familiar with the flavors consumed by their mothers, and such experiences may impact on later food and flavor acceptability and choice.
People eat more unhealthy foods when served more (portion size effect) and when the food is served in larger units (unit size effect). The present study aimed to examine whether these effects can be used for the good: to increase vegetable consumption among children.
A 2×2 between-subjects experiment was conducted at two schools. Pupils were presented in class with cucumber that varied both in unit size (one piece v. pre-sliced) and portion size (one-third v. two-thirds of a cucumber). Children ate ad libitum during the morning break and filled in a survey.
Primary schools in the centre of the Netherlands.
Primary-school pupils (n 255) aged 8-13 years.
Children ate 54 % more cucumber when served a large compared with a smaller portion (difference of 49 g; P<0·001). Large units did not impact consumption (P=0·58), but were considered as less convenient to eat than small units (P=0·001).
Findings suggest that children's vegetable intake can be improved by serving larger portions in smaller-sized pieces.
Many people want to eat healthier, but they often fail in these attempts. We report two field studies in an elementary school cafeteria that each demonstrate children eat more of a vegetable (carrots, broccoli) when we provide it first in isolation versus alongside other more preferred foods. We propose this healthy first approach succeeds by triggering one's inherent motivation to eat a single food placed in front of them, and works even though they have prior knowledge of the full menu available and no real time constraints. Consistent with this theory, and counter to simple contrast effects, an additional lab study found that presenting a food first in isolation had the unique ability to increase intake whether the food was healthy (carrots) or less healthy (M&M's). Our findings demonstrate the effectiveness of this simple intervention in promoting healthier eating, which should interest consumers, food marketers, health professionals, and policy makers.
Children's vegetable consumption is still far below that recommended, and stimulating their intake is a challenge for caregivers. The objective of this study was to investigate whether choice-offering is an effective strategy to increase children's vegetable intake in an in-home situation. Seventy children (mean age 3.7; SD 1) randomly assigned to a choice or a no-choice condition, were exposed 12 times to six familiar target vegetables at home during dinner. In the choice group, two selected vegetables were offered each time, whereas the no-choice group only received one vegetable. Vegetable intake was measured by weighing children's plates before and after dinner. A mixed linear model with age, gender, and baseline vegetable liking as covariates was used to compare intake between the choice and the no-choice group. Mixed linear model analysis yielded estimated means for vegetable intake of 48.5g +/- 30 in the no-choice group and 57.7 g +/- 31 for the choice group (P = 0.09). In addition, baseline vegetable liking (P < 0.001) and age (P = 0.06) predicted vegetable intake to be higher when the child liked vegetables better and with older age. These findings suggest that choice-offering has some, but hardly robust, effect on increasing vegetable intake in children. Other factors such as age and liking of vegetables also mediate the effect of offering a choice.
Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Breastfeeding (BF) is associated with willingness to accept vegetables. This may be due to the variety of flavours delivered via breast milk. Some mothers add vegetables to milk during complementary feeding (CF) to enhance acceptance. The present study tested a step-by-step exposure to vegetables in milk then rice during CF, on intake and liking of vegetables. Just before CF, enrolled mothers were randomised to an intervention (IG, n =18; 6 BF) or control group (CG, n = 18; 6 BF). IG infants received 12 daily exposures to vegetable puree added to milk (days 1-12), then 12 x 2 daily exposures to vegetable puree added to rice at home (days 13-24). Plain milk and rice were given to CG. Then both received 11 daily exposures to vegetable puree. Intake was weighed and liking rated on days 25-26 and 33-35 after the start of CF in the laboratory, supplemented by the same data recorded at home. Vegetables were rotated daily (carrots, green beans, spinach, broccoli). Intake, liking and pace of eating were greater for IG than CG infants. Intake and liking of carrots were greater than green beans. However, at 6m then 18m follow up, vegetable (carrot > green beans) but not group differences were observed. Mothers reported appreciation of the structure and guidance of this systematic approach. Early exposure to vegetables in a step-by-step method could be included in CF guidelines and longer term benefits assessed by extending the exposure period. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Background and objective:
Breastfeeding has been associated with early infant food preferences, but less is known about how breastfeeding is associated with later child diet. The objective of this study was to assess whether any and exclusive breastfeeding duration are associated with child diet at 6 years.
Methods:
We linked data from the Infant Feeding Practices Study II and Year 6 Follow-Up. We used approximately monthly questionnaires throughout infancy to calculate any and exclusive breastfeeding duration (n = 1355). We calculated median daily frequency of intake of water, milk, 100% juice, fruits, vegetables, sugar-sweetened beverages, sweets, and savory snacks at 6 years from a dietary screener and examined frequency of consumption of each food or beverage group by any and exclusive breastfeeding duration. We used separate multivariable logistic regression models to calculate odds of consuming more than the median daily frequency of intake of food or beverage items, adjusting for confounders.
Results:
Intake of milk, sweets, and savory snacks at 6 years was not associated with any or exclusive breastfeeding duration in unadjusted analyses. Frequency of consumption of water, fruits, and vegetables was positively associated, and intake of sugar-sweetened beverages was inversely associated with any and exclusive breastfeeding duration in adjusted models; 100% juice consumption was inversely associated with exclusive breastfeeding duration only.
Conclusions:
Among many other health benefits, breastfeeding is associated with a number of healthier dietary behaviors at age 6. The association between breastfeeding and child diet may be an important factor to consider when examining associations between breastfeeding and child obesity and chronic diseases.
Vegetable intake is generally low among children, who appear to be especially fussy during the pre-school years. Repeated exposure is known to enhance intake of a novel vegetable in early life but individual differences in response to familiarisation have emerged from recent studies. In order to understand the factors which predict different responses to repeated exposure, data from the same experiment conducted in three groups of children from three countries (n = 332) aged 4-38 m (18.9±9.9 m) were combined and modelled. During the intervention period each child was given between 5 and 10 exposures to a novel vegetable (artichoke puree) in one of three versions (basic, sweet or added energy). Intake of basic artichoke puree was measured both before and after the exposure period. Overall, younger children consumed more artichoke than older children. Four distinct patterns of eating behaviour during the exposure period were defined. Most children were "learners" (40%) who increased intake over time. 21% consumed more than 75% of what was offered each time and were labelled "plate-clearers". 16% were considered "non-eaters" eating less than 10 g by the 5th exposure and the remainder were classified as "others" (23%) since their pattern was highly variable. Age was a significant predictor of eating pattern, with older pre-school children more likely to be non-eaters. Plate-clearers had higher enjoyment of food and lower satiety responsiveness than non-eaters who scored highest on food fussiness. Children in the added energy condition showed the smallest change in intake over time, compared to those in the basic or sweetened artichoke condition. Clearly whilst repeated exposure familiarises children with a novel food, alternative strategies that focus on encouraging initial tastes of the target food might be needed for the fussier and older pre-school children.
Repeated taste exposure, in combination with small rewards, has been shown to increase children's acceptance of disliked foods. However, previous studies have used direct contact with researchers or professionals for the implementation of the repeated exposure procedure. If mailed taste exposure instructions to parents produced comparable outcomes, this could be a cost-effective and easily disseminable strategy to promote healthier diets in children.
Our randomized controlled study aimed to test the efficacy and acceptability of mailed materials giving instructions on taste exposure as a means of increasing acceptance of vegetables in preschool-aged children.
Participants were families of 3-year-old twins from the Gemini cohort who took part between March 2011 and April 2012. Families were randomized to a mailed intervention or a no treatment control condition. The intervention involved offering each child 14 daily tastes of a disliked (target) vegetable with a small reward (a sticker) if the child complied.
Outcomes were the child's intake of the target vegetable (number of pieces) and parent reports of the child's liking at two baseline (T1 and T2) and one postintervention (T3) behavior assessment.
Record sheets with intake and liking data from T1, T2, and T3 were returned for 472 children, of which 442 were complete (94%). Over the intervention period (T2 to T3) intake and liking of the target vegetable increased significantly more in the intervention group than in the control group (intake: odds ratio 12.05, 95% CI 8.05 to 18.03, P<0.001; liking: odds ratio 12.35%, CI 7.97 to 19.12, P<0.001). Acceptability of the procedure was very high among parents who completed the protocol.
Mailed instructions for taste exposure were effective in increasing children's acceptance of an initially disliked vegetable. These results support the value of parent-administered exposure to increase children's vegetable acceptance, and suggest that it can be carried out without direct health professional contact.
Fruit and vegetable intake in children remains below recommendations in many countries. The long-term effects of early parental feeding practices on fruit and vegetable intake are not clearly established.
The purpose of the current study was to examine whether early feeding practices influence later fruit and vegetable intake in preschool children.
The study used data from 4 European cohorts: the British Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), the French Etude des Déterminants pre et postnatals de la santé et du développement de l'Enfant study, the Portuguese Generation XXI Birth Cohort, and the Greek EuroPrevall study. Fruit and vegetable intake was assessed in each cohort by food-frequency questionnaire. Associations between early feeding practices, such as breastfeeding and timing of complementary feeding, and fruit and/or vegetable intake in 2-4-y-old children were tested by using logistic regressions, separately in each cohort, after adjustment for infant's age and sex and maternal age, educational level, smoking during pregnancy, and maternal fruit and vegetable intake.
Large differences in early feeding practices were highlighted across the 4 European cohorts with longer breastfeeding duration in the Generation XXI Birth Cohort and earlier introduction to complementary foods in ALSPAC. Longer breastfeeding duration was consistently related to higher fruit and vegetable intake in young children, whereas the associations with age of introduction to fruit and vegetable intake were weaker and less consistent across the cohorts. Mothers' fruit and vegetable intake (available in 3 of the cohorts) did not substantially attenuate the relation with breastfeeding duration.
The concordant positive association between breastfeeding duration and fruit and vegetable intake in different cultural contexts favors an independent specific effect.
Children's vegetable consumption is below the public health recommendations. This study aimed to compare learning mechanisms to increase vegetable acceptance in infants at complementary feeding, namely repeated exposure (RE), flavor-flavor learning (FFL), and flavor-nutrient learning (FNL); measure the stability of the learning effect; and examine the impact of infants' feeding history on vegetable acceptance. The study was composed of a preexposure test, an exposure period, a postexposure test, and tests at 2-wk, 3-mo, and 6-mo follow-ups. At pre- and postexposure, a basic artichoke purée and carrot purée were presented to 95 French infants (6.4 ± 0.8 mo). During the exposure period, infants were randomly split into 3 groups and were exposed 10 times to the basic (RE group; 2 kJ/g; n = 32), a sweet (FFL group; 2 kJ/g; n = 32), or an energy-dense (FNL group; 6 kJ/g; n = 31) artichoke purée 2 or 3 times/wk. To evaluate acceptance, intake (g) and liking were recorded at home by parents. Between pre- and postexposure, intake of the basic artichoke purée significantly increased in the RE (+63%) and FFL (+39%) groups but not in the FNL group; liking increased only in the RE group (+21%). After exposure, artichoke was as much consumed and as much liked as carrot only in the RE group. Learning of artichoke acceptance was stable up to 3 mo postexposure. Initial artichoke intake was significantly related to the number of vegetables offered before the study started. RE is as effective as and simpler to implement than FFL and more effective than FNL for increasing vegetable acceptance at complementary feeding.
Children are not consuming sufficient amounts of fruits and vegetables in their habitual diet. Methods derived from associative learning theories could be effective at promoting vegetable intake in pre-school children. The objective of the present study was to compare the effectiveness of different learning strategies in promoting the intake of a novel vegetable. Children aged between 9 and 38 months were recruited from UK nurseries. The children (n 72) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions (repeated exposure, flavour-flavour learning or flavour-nutrient learning). Each child was offered ten exposures to their respective version of a novel vegetable (artichoke). Pre- and post-intervention measures of artichoke purée and carrot purée (control vegetable) intake were taken. At pre-intervention, carrot intake was significantly higher than artichoke intake (P < 0·05). Intake of both vegetables increased over time (P < 0·001); however, when changes in intake were investigated, artichoke intake increased significantly more than carrot intake (P < 0·001). Artichoke intake increased to the same extent in all three conditions, and this effect was persistent up to 5 weeks post-intervention. Five exposures were sufficient to increase intake compared to the first exposure (P < 0·001). Repeated exposure to three variants of a novel vegetable was sufficient to increase intake of this vegetable, regardless of the addition of a familiar taste or energy. Repetition is therefore a critical factor for promoting novel vegetable intake in pre-school children.
How children acquire preferences for added sugar and salt was examined by investigating the effects of repeated exposure to 1 of 3 versions of a novel food (sweetened, salty, or plain tofu) on children's preference for those and other similar foods. Participants were 39 4- and 5-yr-olds assigned to taste only 1 of 3 flavored versions 15 times over several weeks. Preferences for all versions were obtained before, during, and after the exposure series. Preference increased for the exposed version only. Experience with 1 flavored version did not produce generalized liking for all 3 versions of the food. Experience with 1 version (flavored or plain) actually produced a decline in preference for the other version. This was true whether children had experience with plain or flavored versions of the food. The acquired preference was restricted to the particular food/flavor complex; through exposure, children seemed to learn whether it was appropriate to add salt or sugar to a particular food. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
A review and meta-analysis of methodological and subject variables influencing the exposure–affect relationship was performed on studies of the mere exposure effect published in the 20 years following R. B. Zajonc's (see record
1968-12019-001) seminal monograph. Stimulus type, stimulus complexity, presentation sequence, exposure duration, stimulus recognition, age of subject, delay between exposure and ratings, and maximum number of stimulus presentations all influence the magnitude of the exposure effect. Implications of these findings are discussed in the context of previous reviews of the literature on exposure effects and with respect to prevailing theoretical models of the exposure–affect relationship. Modifications of the 2-factor model of exposure effects that increase the heuristic value of the model are described. A possible evolutionary basis of the exposure effect is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Two experiments allowed rats to drink freely two neutral flavors (almond and vanilla) in simultaneous compound with two hedonically
valued flavors (quinine and saccharin). The neutral flavor previously paired with saccharin was subsequently preferred. The
neutral flavor that had been paired with quinine was subsequently avoided. Experiment 3 found similar results when the animals
were hand-fed a preset amount of the solution. Preference shifts were not obtained when differential amounts of the neutral
flavors were consumed in isolation. The data indicate that flavor-flavor associations can shift taste preferences.
HYPOTHESIZES THAT MERE REPEATED EXPOSURE OF THE INDIVIDUAL TO A STIMULUS OBJECT ENHANCES HIS ATTITUDE TOWARD IT. BY "MERE" EXPOSURE IS MEANT A CONDITION MAKING THE STIMULUS ACCESSIBLE TO PERCEPTION. SUPPORT FOR THE HYPOTHESIS CONSISTS OF 4 TYPES OF EVIDENCE, PRESENTED AND REVIEWED: (1) THE CORRELATION BETWEEN AFFECTIVE CONNOTATION OF WORDS AND WORD FREQUENCY, (2) THE EFFECT OF EXPERIMENTALLY MANIPULATED FREQUENCY OF EXPOSURE UPON THE AFFECTIVE CONNOTATION OF NONSENSE WORDS AND SYMBOLS, (3) THE CORRELATION BETWEEN WORD FREQUENCY AND THE ATTITUDE TO THEIR REFERENTS, AND (4) THE EFFECTS OF EXPERIMENTALLY MANIPULATED FREQUENCY OF EXPOSURE ON ATTITUDE. THE RELEVANCE FOR THE EXPOSURE-ATTITUDE HYPOTHESIS OF THE EXPLORATION THEORY AND OF THE SEMANTIC SATIATION FINDINGS WERE EXAMINED. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).
Background: Portion size influences children's energy intakes at meals, but effects on daily intake are unknown.
Objective: Effects of large portions on daily energy intake were tested in 5-y-old Hispanic and African American children from low-income families. Maternal food intake data were collected to evaluate familial susceptibility to portion size.
Design: A within-subjects experimental design with reference and large portion sizes was used in a study of 59 low-income Hispanic and African American preschool-aged children and their mothers. The portion size of 3 entrées (lunch, dinner, and breakfast) and an afternoon snack served during a 24-h period were of a reference size in one condition and doubled in the other condition. Portion sizes of other foods and beverages did not vary across conditions. Weighed food intake, anthropometric measures, and self-reported data were obtained.
Results: Doubling the portion size of several entrées and a snack served during a 24-h period increased energy intake from those foods by 23% (180 kcal) among children (P < 0.0001) and by 21% (270 kcal) among mothers (P < 0.0001). Child and maternal energy intakes from other foods for which portion size was not altered did not differ across conditions. Consequently, total energy intakes in the large-portion condition were 12% (P < 0.001) and 6% (P < 0.01) higher in children and mothers, respectively, than in the reference condition. Child and maternal intakes of the portion-manipulated foods were not correlated.
Conclusions: Large portions may contribute to obesigenic dietary environments by promoting excess daily intakes among Hispanic and African American children.
The unpleasant bitter taste found in many nutritious vegetables may deter their consumption. While bitterness suppression by sweeteners is well-studied in the chemical and pharmacological fields (Ley Chem Percept, 1:58–77, 2008), less is known about the interaction of sweeteners with the bitterness of functional foods such as vegetables. We investigated whether sweeteners decreased the bitterness of vegetables as a step toward increasing consumption. Our secondary aim was to determine whether this effect was influenced by individual variation in bitterness perception, as assessed by phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) tasting ability. In Experiment 1, 111 college students tasted and rated plain broccoli and cauliflower, then received one with the addition of sucrose. In Experiment 2, we replaced broccoli with Brussels sprouts, which are generally perceived as highly bitter (Tepper Am J Hum Genet, 63:1271–1276, 1998), and replicated the study with 76 new participants. In Experiment 3, 224 participants tasted Brussels sprouts plain and with the addition of sucrose, saccharin, aspartame, or sucralose. In all experiments, sensitivity to PTC was also measured using suprathreshold scaling with an updated generalized labeled magnitude scale. The reported bitterness of the vegetables was significantly decreased by the addition of sweeteners in each study, all p values of
Food preferences and habits learned at a young age can influence adulthood dietary patterns and weight, but the mechanism remains to be elucidated. We investigated the effect of perceived recollections of early food experiences on current liking for those foods by 670 college students. We showed that the perceived recollection of frequent consumption of foods in childhood was significantly related to current liking for the vast majority of the foods, including nutritious foods such as vegetables. Similarly, parental encouragement and modeling was positively related with current liking, even for foods that were disliked in childhood. Additionally, perceived recollections of parental restriction or forced consumption were significantly negatively related with current liking. Lastly, we demonstrated that perceived recollections by college students of childhood eating practices were in moderate agreement with those of their parents, lending credibility to the retrospective survey methodology in determining long-term effects of exposure on current food habits. These findings show that the perceived recalled frequency of consumption of foods is one determinant of the food preferences of adults, demonstrating a long-term effect of frequency of exposure, a finding consistent with experimentally controlled short-term studies. Frequent exposure to foods in childhood could be a simple and effective way for parents and caregivers to instill healthy eating habits in children.
Previous research suggests that the use of modelling and non-food rewards may be effective at increasing tasting, and consequential liking and acceptance, of a previously disliked food. Although successful school-based interventions have been developed, there is a lack of research into home-based interventions using these methods. This study aimed to develop and investigate the efficacy of a parent led home-based intervention for increasing children's acceptance of a disliked vegetable. A total of 115 children aged 2-4 years were allocated to one of four intervention groups or to a no-treatment control. The four intervention conditions were: repeated exposure; modelling and repeated exposure; rewards and repeated exposure; or modelling, rewards and repeated exposure. Children in all of the intervention conditions were exposed by a parent to daily offerings of a disliked vegetable for 14 days. Liking and consumption of the vegetable were measured pre and post-intervention. Significant increases in post-intervention consumption were seen in the modelling, rewards and repeated exposure condition and the rewards and repeated exposure condition, compared to the control group. Significant post-intervention differences in liking were also found between the experimental groups. Liking was highest (>60%) in the modelling, rewards and repeated exposure group and the rewards and repeated exposure group, intermediate (>26%) in the modelling and repeated exposure and repeated exposure groups, and lowest in the control group (10%). Parent led interventions based around modelling and offering incentives may present cost efficient ways to increase children's vegetable consumption.
Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
The efficacy of sodium salts as bitterness suppressors is highly variable depending on the tastants used, and few studies have investigated whether salt can mask the bitterness of nutritious vegetables. We compared how sodium chloride (NaCl) affected bitterness ratings of vegetables and quinine hydrochloride (QHCl). In Experiment 1, Brussels sprouts and cauliflower were rated plain and with the addition of NaCl on hedonic and sensory attributes. In Experiment 2, multiple concentrations of NaCl were given on the vegetables, and participants tasted QHCl plain and with the addition of NaCl. In both experiments, reported bitterness and liking of the vegetables did not change with the addition of NaCl; all p values > 0.3. Hierarchical linear regression modeling revealed that NaCl decreased the bitterness ratings of the vegetables most for participants who perceived the plain vegetables as highly bitter, R
2 = 0.211, and increased hedonic ratings of the vegetables most for participants who disliked the plain vegetables, R
2 = 0.243. The addition of NaCl to QHCl significantly reduced bitterness ratings, p < 0.001, especially for participants who found the plain QHCl highly bitter, R
2 = 0.339. Sodium chloride suppressed bitterness and increased liking for participants who disliked plain vegetables and tasted them as highly bitter. These results suggest that NaCl would be efficacious as a bitterness masking agent for people particularly vulnerable to vegetable underconsumption. Furthermore, NaCl might interact fundamentally differently with a full food matrix than it does with QHCl, limiting the generalizeability of chemical suppression studies.
Pairing foods with liked flavors repeatedly can increase preferences for those foods. We compared the effectiveness of associative conditioning (pairing vegetables with sweetened and unsweetened cream cheese) and exposure (presenting vegetables alone) in increasing liking and consumption of bitter and nonbitter vegetables. Twenty-nine children (aged 3 to 5 years) participated in the study. One group of children received brussels sprouts (bitter) with sweetened cream cheese and cauliflower (nonbitter) with unsweetened cream cheese and a second group received the reverse pairing. A third group received brussels sprouts and cauliflower with no cream cheese. Pairing brussels sprouts with cream cheese increased liking and consumption more than exposure, whereas cauliflower was liked by all groups regardless of presence of cream cheese. Associative conditioning was more effective than exposure in increasing liking for a novel, bitter vegetable-brussels sprouts-whereas exposure alone was effective for a nonbitter, more familiar vegetable-cauliflower.
The introduction of weaning foods is a major transition in the development of infants’ eating behavior. Previous studies showed that greater variety at the beginning of the weaning period can later influence an infant’s acceptance of new foods. The aim of the present study was to describe maternal feeding practices in the first year (breastfeeding duration, age at the initiation of weaning, variety of new foods introduced) and to study whether they impacted infants’ later acceptance of new foods in a longitudinal survey of French children’s eating behavior.
The portion size (PS) of foods has been identified as an important environmental factor to influence children’s intake. It remains to be investigated if increasing the PS of healthy foods, such as fruits and vegetables (F&V), can be used to increase children’s intake of these foods and displace intake of other, more energy dense foods at a meal. The aim of the present study was to examine the effects of doubling the PS of F&V side dishes on children’s food and energy
intake at a meal. Forty-three children (22 boys, 21 girls), ages 5–6 years, were served dinner once a week for 2 weeks. Each dinner consisted of pasta with tomato sauce, three F&V side dishes (broccoli, carrots, applesauce), and milk. The PS of the F&V was doubled between experimental conditions while the size of the pasta and the milk remained constant. Doubling the PS of the side dishes resulted in a 43% increase in children’s intake of the fruit side dish (P = 0.001), but did not affect their intake of the two vegetable side dishes (P > 0.60). Further, when the PS of F&V was doubled, children ate significantly less of the pasta (P = 0.04). The difference in meal energy intake (19.5 ± 16.3 kcal) and food intake (10.3 ± 16.3 g) between portion size conditions was not significant (P > 0.24). Variations in PS can be used to increase children’s intake of fruits. More
studies are needed to test different strategies to also promote children’s intake of vegetables.
In three experiments negative contrast in consummatory responding was measured, as well as the preference for the flavor associated with the lesser reinforcer. In all experiments one flavor of saccharin was given on days that chocolate milk occurred and another flavor was given on days with no chocolate milk. For some groups the saccharin preceded chocolate milk, for others the order of chocolate milk and saccharin was random, and for others the saccharin followed the chocolate milk. In all experiments rats suppressed consumption of the lesser reinforcer during training (negative contrast) but preferred the flavor of saccharin that had accompanied chocolate milk to the flavor of saccharin that occurred alone. This suggests that contrast is not a reflection of reduced reward value of the lesser reinforcer. Instead some negative reaction to receiving the lesser reinforcer during training must suppress consumption.
A review and meta-analysis of methodological and subject variables influencing the exposure-affect relationship was performed on studies of the mere exposure effect published in the 20 years following Zajonc's (1968) seminal monograph. Stimulus type, stimulus complexity, presentation sequence, exposure duration, stimulus recognition, age of subject, delay between exposure and ratings, and maximum number of stimulus presentations all influence the magnitude of the exposure effect. Implications of these findings are discussed in the context of previous reviews of the literature on exposure effects and with respect to prevailing theoretical models of the exposure-affect relationship. Modifications of the 2-factor model of exposure effects that increase the heuristic value of the model are described. A possible evolutionary basis of the exposure effect is discussed.
Children's eating behaviours are fundamental to their health. Dietary surveys indicate that children's food consumption is likely to promote a range of diet-related diseases, including overweight and obesity, which are associated with a range of psychosocial and physical disorders. With the prevalence of overweight and obesity rapidly increasing, opportunities for informed prevention have become a focus of strategy. Diet is recognised as important in the genesis of obesity. We present data that demonstrate that eating behaviours are likely to be established early in life and may be maintained into adulthood. We review literature that shows that children's eating behaviours are influenced by the family food environment. These findings suggest that the family environment should be considered in developing obesity prevention strategy for children, yet the current strategy focuses primarily on the school environment. Those factors in the family environment that appear to be important include: parental food preferences and beliefs, children's food exposure; role modelling; media exposure; and child-parent interactions around food. However, the existing data are based on small scale and unrepresentative US samples. At a population level, we have few insights regarding family food environments and consequently little information about how such environments influence children's eating behaviours and thus their risk for obesity. We suggest research that may promote a better understanding of the role of family food environments as determinants of children's eating behaviour, and consider the implications for obesity prevention in Australia. (Aust J Nutr Diet 2001;58:19-25)
Currently, fewer than 15% of children between the ages of 4-8years consume the recommended levels of fruit and vegetables. In order to address this serious public health issue, a variety of nutrition programs have been implemented across the United States which have varied in their success. The present research analyzed the effectiveness of providing fruit and vegetable exposure as part of a school nutrition program. Kindergarten students at two schools (N=59) were exposed to interactive activities about healthy eating and physical activity. In addition, those at one school (n=29) were exposed to a variety of fruits and vegetables as part of this program. Assessment of children's ability to identify and their willingness to try fruit and vegetables before and after the program indicated that while all children were better able to identify a range of fruit, only those who received exposure to healthful foods were more willing to try fruit after the program. There were no changes in their identification or willingness to eat vegetables. These results suggest that schools should provide exposure to a variety of healthy foods as part of their nutrition programs. Such programs should focus specifically on exposing children to vegetables because increasing children's willingness to try foods that are typically considered unpalatable may be especially challenging.
The present study examined infants' preferences for different food textures and aimed to identify factors that play an important role in shaping these preferences. In a home setting, 70 twelve-month-old infants were exposed to cooked carrots prepared in two different textures; pureed and chopped. Infants' mean intakes in grams for the pureed and the chopped carrots were 70.9 +/- 49.1 g and 24.6 +/- 28 g respectively. Infants consumed significantly more pureed carrots (t(69) = 8.50, p < 0.001) and mothers' rating of the infants' enjoyment for this texture was significantly higher (t(69) = 3.65, p < 0.01) than for chopped carrots. However a great variability in the consumption of chopped carrots was found within the infants. Spearman's correlation and PLSR analysis showed that familiarity with different textures, especially chopped foods, is the strongest predictor of intake and liking of chopped carrots. Furthermore, infants with higher dietary variety, more teeth and a greater willingness to try new foods were more likely to consume more of the chopped carrots. Food pickiness and fussiness had a negative influence on the intake of, and liking for, chopped carrots. The present research is a first step to explain the variation in infants' consumption and liking of different textures. It highlights the importance of not only varying the child's experiences with different flavours but also with different textures to foster the infants' transition to an adult diet.
Discusses the problem of studying food selection; genetically determined aspects of food selection in rats and humans; how learning about food occurs; the conflict between neophobia and neophilia; the relations between familiarity, preference and early experience; the concept of humans as omnivores; and the importance of the idea of cuisine in assessing the development and maintenance of food preferences. Implications for changing food habits, for studying the cultural and behavioral significance of flavors (e.g., spices), and for understanding the paradox of widespread preferences for unpalatable foods are also considered. (90 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Food preferences have been identified as a key determinant of children's food acceptance and consumption. The aim of this study was to identify factors that influence children's liking for fruits, vegetables and non-core foods. Participants were Australian mothers (median age at delivery=31years, 18-46years) and their two-year-old children (M=24months, SD=1month; 52% female) allocated to the control group (N=245) of the NOURISH RCT. The effects of repeated exposure to new foods, maternal food preferences and child food neophobia on toddlers' liking of vegetables, fruits and non-core foods and the proportion never tried were examined via hierarchical regression models; adjusting for key maternal (age, BMI, education) and child covariates (birth weight Z-score, gender), duration of breastfeeding and age of introduction to solids. Maternal preferences corresponded with child preferences. Food neophobia among toddlers was associated with liking fewer vegetables and fruits, and trying fewer vegetables. Number of repeated exposures to new food was not significantly associated with food liking at this age. Results highlight the need to: (i) encourage parents to offer a wide range of foods, regardless of their own food preferences, and (ii) provide parents with guidance on managing food neophobia.
Serving larger portions of energy-dense foods has been shown to promote children's energy intake at meals. Whether larger portions increase children's intake of both fruits and vegetables (F&V) is less clear. A 2×2 within-subjects design systematically varied portion sizes of fruit (75 vs 150 g) and vegetable (75 vs 150 g) side dishes served at dinner. Children's F&V liking was measured using a validated tasting method. Thirty children aged 4 to 6 years were tested in a laboratory setting at 5:00 pm on weekdays from November 2008 through March 2009. Mixed linear models were used to determine effects of fruit portion size, vegetable portion size, and their interaction on food and energy intakes. Data are presented as model-based means±standard error unless otherwise indicated. When portions were doubled, children increased their vegetable intake by 37% (12±4 g; P<0.01) and their fruit intake by 70% (41±6 g; P<0.01). Vegetable portion size effects were not influenced by offering more fruit and vice versa. Portion size effects were limited to children who liked that particular food. Total meal energy intake did not vary by portion size condition. These results indicate that serving larger F&V portions at meals can be used to promote young children's intake of both foods without influencing total meal energy intake. Effects were not seen in children who disliked F&V, suggesting a need to combine increased F&V portions with strategies to increase their acceptance.
Evidence-based strategies for promoting vegetable consumption among children are limited.
To determine the effects of providing a palatable “dip” along with repeated exposure to a raw vegetable on preschoolers' liking and intake.
One hundred fifty-two predominately Hispanic preschool-aged children studied in Head Start classrooms in 2008.
A between-subjects, quasiexperimental design was used. A moderately-liked raw vegetable (broccoli) was offered twice weekly at afternoon snacks for 7 weeks. Classrooms were randomized to receive broccoli in one of four conditions differing in the provision of dip. Bitter taste sensitivity was assessed using 6-n-propylthiouracil.
Broccoli was provided in four conditions: with regular salad dressing as a dip, with a light (reduced energy/fat) version of the dressing as a dip, mixed with the regular dressing as a sauce, or plain (without dressing).
Mean broccoli intake during 7 weeks of exposure and broccoli liking following exposure.
Descriptive statistics were generated. Multilevel models for repeated measures tested effects of condition and bitter sensitivity on mean broccoli intake during exposure and on pre- and post-exposure liking while adjusting for classroom effects and potential covariates.
The majority of Hispanic preschoolers (70%) showed sensitivity to the bitter taste of 6-n-propylthiouracil. Children's broccoli liking increased following exposure but did not vary by dip condition or bitter sensitivity. Bitter-sensitive children, however, ate 80% more broccoli with dressing than when served plain (P<0.001); effects did vary based on whether regular or light dressing was provided as a dip or sauce. Dip did not promote broccoli intake among bitter-insensitive children.
Providing dip—regular, light, or as a sauce—increased raw broccoli intake among bitter-sensitive Hispanic preschoolers. Findings suggest that offering low-fat dips can promote vegetable intake among some children who are sensitive to bitter tastes.
Laboratory and home-based research suggest that repeated exposure to vegetables may increase consumption among children. Effectiveness of repeated exposure to vegetables has not been tested in a community-based preschool setting.
This randomized controlled trial tested the hypotheses that children who are served unfamiliar vegetables repeatedly in the preschool lunch setting will increase consumption of them, and that consumption will be influenced by peer eating behaviors and parental feeding behaviors.
Data were collected in two private preschools in a small northeastern city in 2007. Ninety-six children (aged 3 to 6 years) participated.
Schools were randomly assigned to condition. During the first 6 weeks, Preschool A served three vegetables at lunch on 10 separate occasions (ie, 30 days of exposure), while Preschool B continued routine practice. In the 7th week, schools reversed conditions and Preschool B served the vegetables for the next 6 weeks. Consumption data were collected daily in the intervention school and at baseline and post-intervention meals in the control school. PRIMARY OUTCOMES/STATISTICAL ANALYSES: Analysis of variance was used to examine the effect of vegetable exposure on vegetable intake; multilevel models were used to examine the effect of peer eating behaviors and parental feeding practices on vegetable intake.
Repeated exposure did not increase vegetable consumption. Greater consumption by tablemates was a significant predictor of greater vegetable consumption; across the three vegetables, 1 g of peer intake was associated with roughly a 1/5-g intake increase among the subjects. Overall, children demonstrated wide fluctuation in vegetable consumption from day to day, creating as much variability within subjects as between them.
Further research should explore the conditions necessary for repeated exposure to increase vegetable consumption in preschool settings. Creating opportunities for young children to serve as peer models has promise as a strategy to promote vegetable consumption.
There appear to be unconditioned affective reactions to the four basic tastes: liking for sweet and salt and disliking for
sour and bitter. We attempted to modify these reactions by pairing the tastes with calories and with sweeter tastes. Differing
sucrose concentrations were ineffective in reversing the preference for salt over citric acid or for saccharin over quinine.
We could, however, reverse the preference for salt over citric acid, producing an actual preference for sour over salt, by
using sucrose and saccharin as the reinforcers. The initial reactions to tastes could also be modified by reducing the initial
difference in affect produced by the tastes through mixing both tastes with sucrose.
In four experiments, food deprivation was varied during conditioning and testing of conditioning of flavor preferences by
sweeteners. Conditioned preferences for a flavor associated with a more concentrated solution were enhanced by increased deprivation
in training whether sucrose or saccharin was used when rats consumed solutions freely during training. When consumption of
solutions was controlled and higher deprivation levels were used, preference for the higher concentration of sucrose was still
enhanced by increased deprivation in training, but this did not occur with saccharin. We suggest that deprivation may enhance
the reinforcing value of sweetness only when calories increase along with sweetness. We also suggest that deprivation can
enhance flavor preference learning by increasing consumption and thereby increasing exposure to the flavored solutions.
It has been reported previously that rats prefer a flavor they consumed under high deprivation to a flavor they consumed under
low deprivation (Revusky, 1967). Here it was found that this preference occurs only if nutritive solutions are used and the
flavors are given preceding and following eating. If flavors are given separately from the daily feeding, rats prefer the
flavor given under low deprivation, whether or not a nutritive solution is used (Experiment 3). If flavors are given before
and after the daily feeding, rats prefer the flavor they had under high deprivation (before feeding) more if sucrose solutions
are used than if saccharin solutions are used and more on a high-deprivation test than on a low-deprivation test (Experiments
1 and 2). It was concluded that the “incentive value” of consumption is not necessarily higher under high deprivation than
under low deprivation. The preference for the low-deprivation flavor obtained here may reflect a greater proportional rewarding
effect of consumption under low deprivation or may reflect an aversion to the flavor consumed under high deprivation. Perhaps
a small taste of flavor under high deprivation initiates responses of digestion that are unsatisfied and thus aversive, and
the more so the higher the deprivation level.
In the weeks following the start of weaning, 70 mothers were asked to identify a vegetable purée that their infant disliked and that they normally would not offer again. The 49 who did so were then asked to offer that vegetable on alternate days for 16 days, and to offer a well-liked one (carrot purée) on the other days. Amount eaten and acceptance were measured at each meal. On the first day of exposure, mean intake of the initially disliked vegetable was 39 ± 29 g and of the liked one, 164 ± 73 g (mean ± SD). Over the following days, intake of the initially disliked vegetable increased rapidly and by the eighth exposure was 174 ± 54 g, similar to that of the liked vegetable (186 ± 68 g). A similar pattern of results was found for mother-reported liking ratings. These effects of repeated exposure appear to be long lasting because nine months later, 63% of the infants were still eating and liking the initially disliked vegetable. The present study shows that when a vegetable is initially disliked it is worth persisting in feeding it for at least eight subsequent meals.
Previous failures to condition preferences for the unacceptable taste cues sucrose octaacetate (SOA) and citric acid (CA) using a reverse-order, differential conditioning procedure (Forestell & LoLordo, 2000) may have been the result of low consumption of the taste cues in training or of their relatively low acceptability to rats that are thirsty and hungry. In the present study, rats that were thirsty but not hungry readily consumed the SOA and CA conditioned stimulus solutions in training. In test, stronger preferences were displayed for CS+ if the taste cues had been mixed in water (i.e., for the previously unacceptable taste cues) than if they had been made more acceptable by the addition of saccharin in training and test. In Experiment 2, again with rats that were thirsty but not hungry, stronger preferences for CS+ were observed when taste cues were presented in water in the test than when they were presented in saccharin. Addition of saccharin to the taste cues in test eliminated the preference for CS+.
The mammalian infant experiences a variety of flavors prior to weaning because volatile compounds, such as vanilla, are transferred from the mother's diet to her milk. Following nursing mothers' consumption of vanilla flavor, their infants breast-fed longer and consumed more milk as compared to when their mothers consumed the diluent alone. Consistent with these findings, the bottle-fed infants' responses to vanilla-flavored formula were altered relative to their responses to the unflavored formula. In a short-term preference test, experimentally naive infants sucked more vigorously when feeding the vanilla-flavored formula. In a second test that encompassed an entire feeding, they spent more time feeding initially when the formula was flavored with vanilla. This differential responsiveness to the vanilla-flavored formula was absent following these two exposures to vanilla, however. These data support the hypothesis that flavors, either consumed by the mother and transmitted to her milk or added to formula, are detected by the infant and serve to modulate feeding. They also suggest that experience with a flavor in milk alters the infant's responsiveness to that flavor during subsequent feedings. It is hypothesized that under the natural condition of breast-feeding, infants become familiar with the flavors consumed by their mothers, and such experiences may impact on later food and flavor acceptability and choice.
Pavlovian flavor-flavor associative learning has been suggested as one of the determinants of humans' food likes and dislikes (e.g., Rozin & Zellner, 1985). However, few experimental studies exist which directly examined this proposal. In the present study, the hypothesis was tested that the contingent presentation of a neutral flavor (CS) with an already (dis)liked flavor (US) should result in an increase (or decrease) in liking for the originally neutral flavor. Second, the question was addressed whether or not a perceptual characteristic of food other than its flavor (c.q. its color) may also acquire evaluative value when paired with an appetitive or an aversive flavor US. Finally, the relationship was studied between evaluative conditioning and subjects' explicit knowledge of the stimulus relationships presented during the conditioning phase. In a differential conditioning paradigm, subjects drank 12 compound fluids and 12 CS− fluids. Sugar was used as a positive US, and Tween20 as a negative US, while either the flavor or the color of the drink was scheduled as the CS. As indexed by postconditioning visual analog scale ratings, a strong differential evaluative conditioning effect was observed in the flavor-flavor, negative condition. The evidence for positive flavor-flavor conditioning was weak at best, and no evidence was obtained for color-flavor conditioning. On the other hand, none of the subjects in flavor-flavor groups evidenced any explicit knowledge of the CS-US relation, whereas about half of the color-flavor subjects did so. These results are related to the theoretical issues of positive/negative asymmetry, selective associations, and implicit/explicit knowledge dissociations.
This paper reports a procedure, like classical conditioning, that produces enhancement of liking for flavors by humans. The procedure is “pairing” of a relatively neutral flavor with sugar (a hedonically positive taste). Specifically, subjects drank 24 small samples of flavor A sweetened and 24 small samples of flavor B unsweetened. They were then tested for their liking for flavors A and B, both sweetened and unsweetened. In three different studies, varying in a number of aspects of stimulus presentations and context, a relative enhancement in liking for flavor A appeared both on the day of exposure and 1 week later. An absolute enhancement in liking of flavor B (a “mere exposure” effect) also occurred in two of the three experiments.
A reverse-order differential conditioning procedure adapted from Boakes and Lubart (1988) was employed in an attempt to condition preferences to relatively unacceptable tastes in rats. Rats received 10 ml of a calorific reinforcer, which after a short delay was followed by one taste cue, either citric acid or sucrose octaacetate (both were mixed in water), and 10 ml of water followed by the other taste cue. During subsequent two-bottle tests, these animals failed to show a preference for the taste that had been paired with the calorific reinforcer relative to the taste that had been paired with water. When the same reverse-order procedure was employed using taste cues which were mixed in saccharin rather than water, rats acquired a significant preference for the CS+ mixture regardless of whether they were water restricted or not. These results suggest that without the presence of saccharin in the CS solutions, rats do not acquire conditioned preferences for relatively unacceptable tastes.
This study has evaluated the impact of food choices at 2–3 years old on food preferences later in life, by following up the same subjects. Early preferences were estimated through recordings of food choices conducted in a nursery canteen in children aged 2–3, from 1982 to 1999. The children were free to choose the composition of their lunch from among a varied offering of eight dishes. The same subjects (n=341) were contacted in 2001–2002 and so their ages varied from 17–22 (n=91), 13–16 (n=68), 8–12 (n=99) to 4–7 (n=83). Their present preference for the 80 foods most frequently presented at the nursery canteen was assessed through a questionnaire. Five food categories were studied: vegetables, animal products, cheeses, starchy foods and combined foods. The ranking of preference for the different food categories changed especially after puberty. However, regressions performed by food category indicated that for most categories, individual present preference was highly linked to individual preference at 2–3 years old. The link was the stronger for cheeses, followed to a lesser extent by animal products and vegetables. Present preferences increased with age for vegetables and they decreased with age for animal products only in females (to a lesser extent, they decreased with age for starchy foods and cheeses). Analyses by specific foods confirmed the global analysis. Individual present preference was linked to individual early preference for all mature cheeses and for 50% of the foods for other categories: most of these items were strongly flavoured. This study showed that preferences were stable from 2- to 3-year-old until young adulthood and that some changes in preference occurred during adolescence.