Summary: When presented with a meal, the food a child dislikes is a stronger indicator of what they will eat compared to food they like.
Source: Penn State
It is often said that “children eat what they like,” but the results of a new study by Penn State nutritionists and sensory scientists suggest that when it comes to meals, it is more accurate and more relevant to say, “children do not eat what they dislike.”
There is an important difference, according to lead researcher Kathleen Keller, associate professor in the departments of Nutritional Sciences and Food Science, who conducted an experiment involving 61 children ages 4-6 years to assess the relationship between their liking of foods in a meal and subsequent intake. The research revealed that when presented with a meal, disliking is a stronger predictor of what youngsters eat than liking.
“In other words, rather than high-liking driving greater intake, our study data indicate that lower-liking led children to avoid some foods and leave them on the plate,” she said. “Kids have a limited amount of room in their bellies, so when they are handed a tray, they gravitate toward their favorite thing and typically eat that first, and then make choices about whether to eat other foods.”
Study co-author John Hayes, professor of food science and director of the Sensory Evaluation Center in the College of Agricultural Sciences, puts it another way.
“For 50 plus years, we’ve known liking and intake are positively correlated, but this often leads to the mistaken assumption that if it tastes better, you will eat more,” he said. “Reality is a bit more nuanced. In adults, we know that if you really like a food, you may or may not eat it. But if you don’t like it, you’ll rarely or never eat it. These new data show the same pattern is true in young kids.”
Children participated in two identical laboratory sessions in the study conducted in Keller’s Children’s Eating Behavior Laboratory in the College of Health and Human Development, where seven foods — chicken nuggets, ketchup, potato chips, grapes, broccoli, cherry tomatoes and cookies — were included on a tray. Also included were two beverages, fruit punch and milk.
Before eating the meals, children were asked to rate their liking of each food on the following five-point scale — Super Bad, Bad, Maybe Good-Maybe Bad, Good and Super Good. After the children had eaten as much of the meal as they wanted, the researchers weighed what they ate and compared the results with what the kids said they liked and disliked. The correlations were striking.
In findings recently published in the journal Appetite, the researchers reported that the relationship between liking and intake was not strong for most of the foods. For instance, only liking for potato chips, grapes, cherry tomatoes and fruit punch was positively associated with the amount consumed. But no associations were found between liking and intake of other meal items.
However, there was a strong correlation between consumption — or nonconsumption in this case — and the foods the children said they didn’t like. At a multi-component meal, rather than eating what they like, these data are more consistent with the notion that children do not eat what they dislike, the researchers concluded.
Even at a young age, children’s food choices are influenced by their parents and peers, Keller pointed out. So, we need to be careful with assumptions about what truly is driving their behavior when they sit down to eat a meal.
“They pick up on what is said around the table about what foods are good, and while that may not actually correspond to kids eating them, they are taking it all in, and that’s affecting their perceptions of foods,” she said. “Milk is a good example of that — for some families, there may be a health halo effect around milk. Kids learn from an early age that drinking milk will give them a strong body, so they may drink milk even if it’s not their favorite beverage.”
Because children in the United States continue to consume insufficient amounts of vegetables, the findings of research projects such as this one are of great interest to parents, many of whom struggle to get their kids to eat vegetables, Keller believes. Parents want to know how they can improve their kids’ nutrition.
“Some parents struggle with kids who are very picky eaters,” she said. “That can cause long-term nutrition issues and creates a lot of stress for the family. I think picky eating is one of the most common complaints that I hear from parents — ‘How do I get my child to accept more foods? How do I make the dinner experience better and easier for my family?’”
Also contributing to this research were Catherine Shehan, a former graduate student in the Department of Food Science who is currently a quality manager at Epic in Madison, Wisconsin; Terri Cravener, research coordinator and manager of the Children’s Eating Lab at Penn State; and Haley Schlechter, nutritional sciences major.
About this food psychology research news
Author: A’ndrea Messer
Source: Penn State
Contact: A’ndrea Messer – Penn State
Image: The image is credited to Penn State
Original Research: Closed access.
“Do children really eat what they like? Relationships between liking and intake across laboratory test-meals” by Kathleen Keller et al. Appetite
Abstract
Do children really eat what they like? Relationships between liking and intake across laboratory test-meals
Liking plays a primary role in determining what and how much children eat. Despite this, the relationship between liking and intake of foods and beverages served as part of a meal is not often reported, even though pediatric feeding studies frequently collect such data. In addition, few studies have reported on the test-retest reliability of both hedonic ratings and laboratory intake among children.
To address these gaps, this study was designed to assess the relationship between children’s liking of items at a meal and subsequent intake. 61, 4-6 year-olds were recruited to participate in two identical laboratory sessions where liking of 7 foods (i.e., chicken nuggets, ketchup, potato chips, grapes, broccoli, cherry tomatoes, cookie) and 2 beverages (i.e., fruit punch, milk) was assessed (5-point hedonic scale) prior to ad libitum consumption of the same items at a meal. Spearman’s correlations tested the relationship between liking and intake and intra-class correlations assessed inter-session reliability of both measures.
Liking for potato chips (p < 0.01), grapes (p < 0.05), cherry tomatoes (p < 0.001), and fruit punch (p < 0.001) was positively associated with amount consumed, but no associations were found between liking and intake of other meal items. For the majority of meal items, test-retest reliability of liking and intake were significant (ranging from 0.34 for cookies to 0.93 for tomatoes). At a multi-component meal, children’s hedonic ratings were both reliable and modestly predictive of subsequent intake, and the relationships were stronger for lower energy, less well-liked foods.
Rather than eating what they like, these data are more consistent with the notion that children do not eat what they dislike.
