Mealtime is a common battleground in many families. Exasperated parents may be relieved to learn their children’s fussy eating might not be their fault. New research suggests picky eaters are just as likely to be influenced by their genes as environmental factors. But fussy children can grow into fussy adults – so if there’s one food you particularly despise, it’s worth thinking back to what might have caused this.
Young children have many more sweet tastebuds than adults to encourage them to drink milk and not eat bitter berries. Over time, tastebuds are ‘pruned’ to tolerate many new flavours. But a single bad experience can be enough to put someone off a food for life.
Violent vomiting after eating dodgy fish or a terrible tantrum before eating spinach can create an almost permanent connection in the brain between the food and a strong adverse reaction to it. The psychologist Martin Seligman, who tested this theory on rats, called it ‘sauce-béarnaise syndrome’ after his own bad experience with a gone-off French dish.
Time to stop nagging the kids to eat spinach or brussels sprouts, perhaps.
Dr Daniel Glaser is director of Science Gallery at King’s College London
Why your brain makes you hate certain foods | Daniel Glaser
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