Tots with sensitive taste buds eat fewer veggies

Preschoolers who are sensitive to bitter flavors may be especially likely to turn their noses up at vegetables, a new study shows.

In an experiment with 65 preschool children, researchers found that those whose taste buds were particularly attuned to detecting bitterness were less likely to eat their veggies. In some cases, they balked at eating not only bitter vegetables, like broccoli and olives, but also sweeter fare like carrots and red peppers.

In recent years, scientists have identified a gene, dubbed TAS2R38, that controls a receptor for bitter flavor. A study published last year found that children with certain variations of that gene are particularly sensitive tasters, able to detect a very small amount of a bitter-tasting compound in water.

When the children were given free range to snack on bitter-tasting vegetables (broccoli, olives and cucumbers) and sweeter ones (carrots and red peppers), the sensitive kids ate significantly fewer bitter vegetables.

And while only 8 percent of nontaster children refused all of the vegetables, 32 percent of the sensitive tasters did so.

"Parents should try not to project their own food preferences onto their children," said study co-author Dr. Beverly J. Tepper, a professor of food science at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

A nontaster parent who loves broccoli, for instance, may have a more bitter-sensitive child who simply doesn't enjoy the greens in the same way, she explained.

That doesn't mean, however, that bitter-sensitive tykes are destined to shun vegetables their whole lives -- a potential comfort to parents who regularly engage in mealtime struggles.

"We do change our food preferences as we grow and learn," Tepper said, noting that the "impact of genetics isn't set in stone."

Whether there's a more immediate fix to the bitter-sensitivity issue is unclear. A tasty sauce might make vegetables more palatable to a sensitive child, but dousing veggies with toppings may not be the most nutritionally sound choice, Tepper noted.

Serving vegetables cooked rather than raw might help, she said, since cooking takes some of the bite out.

Courtesy Reuters

SOURCE: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, July 2006.

Steve - bitter is one of the flavors we taste; it is something we can acquire a taste for, just like spicy foods. Continued introduction of bitter foods/vegetables will get your child to acclamate to the taste. Sometimes it takes 8, 10, or 15 tries before they begin to except it. Do not give up trying, because it is essential that they learn the importance of these foods at an early age, not to mention their health value :)