Posted by kathryn in Kid's nutrition

I posted a link last week to an article on encouraging your kids to eat a healthy diet, but research from the UK also shows that up to 80 percent of children’s tendency to avoid unfamiliar foods may be inherited. A reluctance to try new foods is called food neophobia and in the past it would have been an evolutionary advantage – preventing exposure to potentially poisonous foods.

The team surveyed the parents of over 5,000 twins aged between 8 and 11 and found identical twins were more likely to be food neophobic than fraternal twins. Shared environment had little effect on food neophobia.

Parents can be reassured that their child’s reluctance to try new foods is not simply the result of poor parental feeding practices, but it is partly in the genes,” said Dr. Lucy Cooke and her team.

However, it’s important not to give up on expanding your child’s food world. Other research has shown the more a child is offered a particular food, the more likely they are to eat it.

Further information

• Source: Reuters
• Research abstract
• Is it important to eat at the table?
• Vegetables by stealth

11 September, 2007