«In our environment there is a wide offer of very sweet but low-nutrition foods.
This feature does not occur in nature.
Part of children's biology causes them to choose sweet foods over bitter ones as an adaptation for survival.
Babies' innate rejection of bitter tastes (such as those of vegetables, but also of certain toxic products) protects them from ingesting poisons, since many compounds are bitter, although not all are toxic. In infancy, the risk of accidental poisoning is greater.
Food neophobia (instinctive rejection of certain foods by children)
It is often suggested that parents repeatedly expose their children to foods they do not like, such as vegetables, because this can increase the chances that they will eventually accept these foods. Patience must therefore be the benchmark; if parents eat them regularly (because they are at home and because the child learns from their parents' example), the children will eventually eat them.
Sweet taste, however, is not only present in breast milk: it is one of the characteristic flavours of foods with the most calories. Since calories are essential for children to grow, this would explain why the preference for sweet foods is greater during the growth stages and decreases when adolescence ends, which coincides with the decline in physical development.
There is a wide range of very sweet but low-nutrition foods available in our environment (such as sugary drinks or pastries). This characteristic does not occur in nature: both breast milk and fruit contain a certain amount of sugar, but at the same time they provide numerous substances and fibre.
It is therefore not surprising that children's sugar consumption far exceeds the WHO recommendations. For this reason, we must all be very attentive to our children's consumption.
RECIPE OF THE MONTH
Gianella Pedemonte
Bachelor of Nutrition
