Mothers who want their youngsters to eat their vegetables should start them early. New studies have found that babies are developing their taste preferences at a young age–sometimes even before they are born–and that has an impact on what 6 year olds like to eat.
The research shows that babies exposed to a variety of vegetables and fruits when they start to eat solid food are much more likely to be willing to eat them in school.
In addition, the studies show that babies given sugar-sweetened beverages grow up to be children who like to drink soda pop. Alarmingly, infants 10 to 12 months old who were given sugar-sweetened beverages more than three times a week were twice as likely to be obese at age six as those who never drank them.
[Pediatrics, Sept 2, 2014]
These findings will not be a surprise to people who have listened to our hour-long interview with Dr. Robert Lustig, a pediatric neuroendocrinologist and author of Fat Chance and The Fat Chance Cookbook.
