Offering “Dip” Promotes Intake of a Moderately-Liked Raw Vegetable among Preschoolers with Genetic Sensitivity to Bitterness (original) (raw)
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Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 2019
Background Intake of vegetables in children remains low. Objective To compare taste exposure (TE), nutrition education (NE) and TEþNE together on intake of an unfamiliar vegetable (mooli/daikon radish) in preschool-aged children. Design Children attending 11 preschools in England were randomly assigned by clusters to four intervention conditions using a 2Â2 factorial design: TE, NE, TEþNE, and no intervention (control). Participants Two hundred nineteen children aged 2 to 5 years participated from September 2016 to June 2017. Intervention The intervention period was 10 weeks preceded and followed by measurements of raw mooli intake as a snack. Preschools were randomized to receive weekly TE at snack time (n¼62 children); NE (n¼68) using the PhunkyFoods program; TEþNE (n¼55) received both weekly taste exposures at snack and lessons from the PhunkyFoods program; and the control condition (n¼34), received NE after the final follow-up measurement. Main outcome measures Individual measured intakes of mooli at Week 1 (baseline), Week 12 (postintervention), and Week 24 and Week 36 (follow-ups). Statistical analysis Differences in intakes were analyzed by cluster. Logistic regressions were conducted to examine odds ratios for intake patterns. Results Data from 140 children with complete mooli intake assessments were analyzed. TE increased intake from 4.7AE1.4 g to 17.0AE2.0 g and this was maintained at both follow-ups. Children assigned to the NE conditions were more likely to eat some of the mooli than children who were not in the NE conditions (odds ratio 6.43, 95% CI 1.5 to 27.8). Combining TE and NE produced no additional benefit to intake beyond TE alone. Conclusions Taste exposures encouraged children to eat more of the unfamiliar vegetable, whereas nutrition education encouraged children who were noneaters to try the vegetable. Both approaches were effective and can be used to produce different outcomes.
Children’s liking and intake of vegetables: A school-based intervention study
Food Quality and Preference, 2012
This study investigated effects on vegetable liking and intake gained from exposing children to snack vegetables of different liking levels. In total, 345 9-11-year-old children participated. The intervention consisted of two exposure periods. First, children were either exposed to a neutrally liked vegetable (cauliflower), a mixture of a neutrally liked and a liked (sugar snap peas) vegetable, or a mixture of a neutrally liked and a disliked (celery) vegetable. In the second, period all children were served all vegetables. Intake of individual vegetables was measured daily. Liking was assessed before and after exposures and at a subsequent follow-up. Liking for most vegetables decreased during the exposure periods but tended to recover somewhat during follow-up. Intake of all vegetables was either stable or decreased during the intervention, no increases were observed. Intake levels depended on type of vegetable servings: When served with a liked vegetable, children consumed more of a neutrally liked vegetable than when served alone (p = 0.0005) or together with a disliked vegetable (p = 0.005). .dk (A. Olsen).
Repeated taste exposure increases liking for vegetables by low-income elementary school children
Appetite, 2010
Children's food preferences play a major role in their food choices and consumption. The objective of the present study was to examine if repeated tastings of selected vegetables in a school setting increased children's liking of these items. A total of 360 fourth-and fifth-grade students attending four low-income, public elementary schools in southeastern Louisiana volunteered to participate. During the spring of 2008, children were offered a taste of carrots, peas, tomatoes, and bell peppers once a week for 10 weeks. At each tasting session children recorded whether they swallowed each of the vegetables, spit it into the napkin, or did not put it in their mouth and indicated their liking for each vegetable using a Likert-type response scale. Approximately one-half of the children tasted eight of ten times during the program (46.5% for those who began disliking and 68.5% for those who began liking the vegetables). Proc Glimmix analyses indicated that for children who began the program disliking the vegetables, repeated tasting improved liking scores for carrots, peas, and tomatoes; liking for bell peppers did not change. The number of children who reported liking or liking a lot for previously disliked vegetables was greater after eight or nine taste exposures. Repeated tasting of less-liked vegetables by children in a cafeteria-based setting is a strategy to promote liking of these items and is effective in approximately half of the participants.
Appetite, 2014
Children's vegetable consumption falls below current recommendations, highlighting the need to identify strategies that can successfully promote intake. The current study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of flavour-flavour learning as one such strategy for increasing vegetable intake in preschool children. Children (N = 29) aged 15 to 56 months were recruited through participating nurseries. Each received a minimum of six and maximium eight exposures to a root vegetable puree with added apple puree (flavourflavour learning) alternating with six to eight exposures to another with nothing added (repeated exposure). A third puree acted as a control. Pre-and post-intervention intake measures of the three purees with nothing added were taken to assess change in intake. Follow-up measures took place 1 month (n = 28) and 6 months (n = 10) post-intervention. Intake increased significantly from pre-to post-intervention for all purees (~36 g), with no effect of condition. Magnitude of change was smaller in the control condition. Analysis of follow-up data showed that intake remained significantly higher than baseline 1 month (p < 0.001) and 6 months (p < 0.001) post-intervention for all conditions. Children under 24 months ate consistently more across the intervention than the older children (≥24 m) with no differences found in response to condition. This study confirms previous observations that repeated exposure increases intake of a novel vegetable in young children. Results also suggest that mere exposure (to the food, the experimenters, the procedure) can generalise to other, similar vegetables but the addition of a familiar flavour confers no added advantage above mere exposure.
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
Understanding what motivates the preference for and selection of foods has important health implications. Research suggests that the phytochemicals present in green leafy vegetables contain anticarcinogenic properties. As a result of the bitter taste of phytochemical compounds, however, foods containing these are often not well accepted, particularly by children. We aimed to study the relation between sensitivity to the bitter taste of 6-n-propylthiocuracil (PROP) and acceptance of bitter- and strong-tasting foods in 3-6-y-old children. Two independent procedures, a threshold detection and a suprathreshold intensity task, were used to measure individual sensitivity to PROP, and 3 independent tasks were used to assess food acceptance. Sensitivity to the bitter taste of PROP was positively correlated with dislike of the taste of raw spinach (P < 0.05). The acceptance of spinach may to some extent be mediated by individual taste perception and be predictable via both threshold and s...
Increasing children's acceptance of vegetables; a randomized trial of parent-led exposure
Appetite, 2003
Despite considerable epidemiological evidence of the health benefits of a diet high in fruit and vegetables, consumption in pre-school children remains well below recommended levels. This study evaluated the effectiveness of an exposure-based intervention, carried out by parents in the home, in increasing children's liking for a previously disliked vegetable. 156 parents of 2 -6 year old children were randomly assigned to Exposure, Information or Control groups after a pre-intervention taste test at which a 'target' vegetable was selected. Parents in the Exposure group gave their child a taste of this vegetable daily for 14 days, parents in the Information group were given nutritional advice and a leaflet, and parents in the Control group received no further intervention. All participants took part in a post-intervention taste test. Greater increases in liking, ranking and consumption of the 'target' vegetable from pre-to post-intervention occurred in the Exposure group than in either of the other two groups. Only the Exposure group showed significant increases across all three outcomes. It can be concluded that a parent-led, exposure-based intervention involving daily tasting of a vegetable holds promise for improving children's acceptance of vegetables. These findings suggest a parental advice strategy which could be disseminated directly to parents or by health professionals. q
Appetite, 2014
Previous studies show that children who are sensitive to the bitter taste of 6-n-propylthiouracil (PROP) report more frequent intake of sweets and less frequent intake of meats (savory fats) relative to children who are PROP insensitive. Laboratory studies are needed to confirm these findings. In this study, seventy-nine 4-to 6-year-olds from diverse ethnicities attended four laboratory sessions, the last of which included a palatable buffet consisting of savory-fats (e.g. pizza), sweet-fats (e.g. cookies, cakes), and sweets (e.g. juices, candies). PROP phenotype was classified by two methods: 1) a common screening procedure to divide children into tasters and nontasters, and 2) a three-concentration method used to approximate PROP thresholds. Height and weight were measured and saliva was collected for genotyping TAS2R38, a bitter taste receptor related to the PROP phenotype. Data were analyzed by General Linear Model ANOVA with intake from savory fats, sweet-fats, and sweets as dependent variables and PROP status as the independent variable. BMI z-score, sex, age, and ethnicity were included as covariates. Adjusted energy intake from the food group "sweets" at the test-meal was greater for tasters than for nontasters. PROP status did not influence children's adjusted intake of savory-fats, but BMI z-score did. The TAS2R38 genotype did not impact intake at the test-meal. At a palatable buffet, PROP taster children preferentially consumed more sweets than nontaster children, while heavier children consumed more savory fats. These findings may have implications for understanding differences in susceptibility to hyperphagia.
How children rate vegetables may be influenced by the preparation method. The primary objective of this study was for first grade students to be involved in a cooking demonstration and to taste and rate vegetables raw and cooked. First grade children of two classes (N= 52: 18 boys and 34 girls (approximately half Hispanic) that had assented and had signed parental consent participated in the study. The degree of liking a particular vegetable was recorded by the students using a hedonic scale of five commonly eaten vegetables tasted first raw (pre-demonstration) and then cooked (post-demonstration). A food habit questionnaire was filled out by parents to evaluate their mealtime practices and beliefs about their child's eating habits. Paired sample t-tests revealed significant differences in preferences for vegetables in their raw and cooked states. Several mealtime characteristics were significantly associated with children's vegetable preferences. Parents who reported being ...
The American journal of clinical …, 2002
Background: Understanding what motivates the preference for and selection of foods has important health implications. Research suggests that the phytochemicals present in green leafy vegetables contain anticarcinogenic properties. As a result of the bitter taste of phytochemical compounds, however, foods containing these are often not well accepted, particularly by children. Objective: We aimed to study the relation between sensitivity to the bitter taste of 6-n-propylthiocuracil (PROP) and acceptance of bitter-and strong-tasting foods in 3-6-y-old children. Design: Two independent procedures, a threshold detection and a suprathreshold intensity task, were used to measure individual sensitivity to PROP, and 3 independent tasks were used to assess food acceptance. Results: Sensitivity to the bitter taste of PROP was positively correlated with dislike of the taste of raw spinach (P < 0.05). Conclusions: The acceptance of spinach may to some extent be mediated by individual taste perception and be predictable via both threshold and suprathreshold measures of PROP taste sensitivity. Furthermore, children as young as 3 y of age can partake in direct investigations of taste, reliably comply with test procedures, and accurately communicate taste perceptions and preferences under study conditions.