A lot of parent has struggled to make their children to eat vegetables. But now researchers believe that mother can make a difference by starting to consume them early. The team of experts led by Dr Mennella’s from Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia reveals that babies can build up a taste for healthy foods in the womb.
The flavors are passed from mother to baby via the amniotic fluid. In order to analyze the hypothesis researchers gave pregnant women capsules of sugar or garlic prior to taking a routine sample of their amniotic fluid. Then a panel of experts was asked to smell those samples. They could identify the samples easily from the women who ate garlic.
This shows that unborn babies could taste it as ninety percent of this sense originates from their sense of smell. The researchers next examined if recollections of flavors like vanilla, carrot, garlic, anise and mint have been shown to be transmitted to amniotic fluid or mother’s milk, could be formed prior to birth.
The researchers divide a group of pregnant women into three. First group was asked to drink carrot juice every day during their pregnancy. Second group was asked to drink carrot juice during breastfeeding and a third to avoid carrots completely. When the children began to eat solid food, researchers fed them cereal made with water or carrot juice.
The study revealed babies who had experienced carrot in their amniotic fluid or mother’s milk ate more of the carrot-flavored cereal. As mothers tend to feed their babies what they eat themselves. It is way of nature of introducing babies to flavors and foods that they prone to come across over their life spans.
The study by Dr Mennella could have extensive implications for the health of children, stated Linda Bartoshuk from University of Florida. People can make a baby eat a healthier diet by exposing baby to all right flavors such as broccoli, carrots, lima beans etc. the study was reported in the journal Pediatrics.