{"id":181661,"date":"2018-04-26T10:06:58","date_gmt":"2018-04-26T14:06:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=181661"},"modified":"2018-04-21T18:59:26","modified_gmt":"2018-04-21T22:59:26","slug":"childs-food-preferences-formed-fetus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/childs-food-preferences-formed-fetus\/","title":{"rendered":"Eat your veggies: Preborn children’s food preferences form in the womb"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Researchers continue to discover amazing facts about life inside the womb. For instance, did you know that what your mother ate during pregnancy shaped your food preference both as a child and throughout your life? Studies show that amniotic fluid takes on the scent and flavor of the foods that pregnant women eat. Their preborn babies then taste those flavors when they swallow amniotic fluid in the womb.<\/p>\n

By 21 weeks gestation, a preborn child is swallowing several ounces of amniotic fluid each day. That fluid, altered by a mother’s diet, contains vitamins, minerals, fats and proteins that the child needs to grow. It also contains tiny molecules which give foods their flavors. Those molecules glide across a preborn baby’s taste buds and as the amount of fluid she swallows increases, so does her exposure to the variety of foods her mother is eating.<\/p>\n

READ: Studies show preborn children can form memories in the womb<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

In one study<\/a>, three groups of women were given either carrot juice or water to drink both during pregnancy and while breastfeeding. One group drank carrot juice during pregnancy and water while breastfeeding. A second group drank water during pregnancy and carrot juice while breastfeeding. The control group only drank water during both\u00a0pregnancy and breastfeeding. The infants who had tasted carrots through amniotic fluid or breastmilk had fewer negative facial expressions when fed carrot-flavored baby cereal compared to plain cereal. They also ate more of the carrot-flavored cereal. The control infants did not show any difference in facial expressions between the carrot-flavored or plain cereals. Researchers concluded that exposure to flavor during pregnancy and breastfeeding helped the children better enjoy the same flavor when fed it in solid foods.<\/p>\n

Another study<\/a> found that prenatal exposure to junk food leads to an increased desire for unhealthy foods after birth. Pregnant rats\u00a0used in the study who ate foods high in fat, salt and sugar had babies who preferred these foods and disliked healthy foods. Scientists involved in the study concluded that the foods a woman eats\u00a0during pregnancy can determine her baby’s eating habits as well as the baby’s odds of obesity and diabetes throughout his lifetime.<\/p>\n