In this article they found that favorite flavors might be programmed in infancy which is leading to new research investigating how to rewire our bad dietary habits. This article talks about if you feed an infant a food in the first few months they might just become a fan of it for life; if you miss that window, then the liking for foods with pungent flavors is more of a fight to like when they are older. "Babies who were fed formula and rice cereal before four months of age had an…increased likelihood of being obese based on body-mass index at the age of three," said Swanson, some one who the author interviewed. Maybe in the future there will be healthy baby food so that when the child grows up they will eat more healthy.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/taste-healthy-foods/
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This is very interesting! There are so many studies that are based on trying to find the best way to raise and nourish children. Even though this study only claims it has an 'increased likelihood' of a child ending up obese if fed rice cereal before four months of age. . I think it is very much worth at least attempting to feed your child healthy! I think in general when people are used to eating healthy foods they have a much easier time sticking to that routine.
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing that the foods babies eat could have that much of an effect on how they eat later in life. I have heard that if you eat a food that you do not like everyday, eventually your taste buds will begin to like this food. This could possibly lead to more ways of priming children and adults to eat healthy later in life if the window of opportunity is missed when they are a baby.
ReplyDeleteObesity has become so prevalent in our society today, so if we could possibly stop it head on and rewire our brains is exciting. Forcing us to love those bitters food would be helping us out in the long run. We wouldn't be having those conversations later in life about how we have to train ourselves to eat healthy food, but instead start as early as possible so we don't have that struggle later in life. It could possibly be saving our life!
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