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Conclusions

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It was shown that children are born with the ability to taste, smell, and discriminate foods, and also to learn to like a new food and its sensory properties. However, marked reactions to taste and olfactory inputs may hinder the learning processes and may be associated with the rejection of specific foods with pronounced tastes and/or flavors. Through the effect of eating experience, taste and olfactory cues acquire a biological significance in relation to the foods they are associated with. Observation of the development of taste and flavor preferences in children shows that learning abilities are high between the onset of complementary feeding and the age of 2 years. This period clearly appears as a window of opportunity to introduce foods from the family diet, particularly vegetables. Learning processes also happen in interaction with parental feeding style and practices, which have to be taken into account to fully understand the development of children’s eating behavior. The research on the early development of food preferences in relation to taste and flavor exposure is still in its infancy. Much more has to be learned: the type of exposure that is more likely to alter food preferences further, the most important periods for this chemosensory exposure, and the conditions under which they may resist to the influence of other factors which are also likely to influence the development of eating behavior and food preferences.

Nurturing a Healthy Generation of Children: Research Gaps and Opportunities

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