The reason
some kids fear new foods has less to do with what's on their plate and more to
do with their genes, a new study has found. Researchers from the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill found that genes play a significant role in
children's eating behaviour, including the tendency to avoid new foods.
"In some respects, food neophobia, or the aversion to trying new foods, is
similar to child temperament or personality," said lead researcher Myles
Faith. "Some children are more genetically susceptible than others to
avoid new foods. However, that doesn't mean that they can't change their
behaviours and become a little less picky," she said in the study
published in the journal Obesity. The study looked at 66 pairs of twins between
ages 4 and 7 years old, and found that genes explain 72 per cent of the
variation among children in the tendency to avoid new foods, while the rest was
influenced by environment. Previous research has shown a similar genetic
influence for food neophobia in 8-to-11-year-olds (78 per cent) and adults (69
per cent), suggesting that the impact of genes on food neophobia is constant
across the developmental spectrum. Faith and his team also examined the
relationship between food neophobia and body fat measures in both parent and
child. Unexpectedly, the researchers found that if the parent was heavier, the
child was heavier only if he or she avoided trying new foods. "It's
unexpected, but the finding certainly invites interesting questions about how
food neophobia and temperament potentially shape longer-term eating and
influence body weight," said Faith. The findings suggested that parents
should consider each child's idiosyncrasies, even for siblings in the same
household, when thinking about how to increase a child's acceptance of new
foods. For example, parents can serve as role models and provide repeated
exposure to new foods at home, or show their child how much they enjoy the food
being avoided. They might also provide a choice of several new items from which
a child could select, the research said.
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