Human beings are born to love sweets. We love them even when we’re in the womb. Some 15 to 16 weeks after conception, foetuses will show their sugar appreciation by swallowing more amniotic fluid when it’s sweet, and less when bitter. Most of our food preferences, however, are learned, and a growing body of research shows that this learning also begins before birth.
It is reckoned that at 21 weeks, foetuses can discern full-on flavours using their senses of smell and taste and Julie Mennella of the Monell Chemical Senses Centre in Philadelphia says, “amniotic fluid is a complex ‘first food’ that contains chemicals that have both tastes and smells.”
Developing flavour awareness five months before most babies start ingesting their calories makes good sense, because when it comes to taste, familiarity breeds fondness. You can train yourself to enjoy most foods through repeated exposure — and the younger you are, the easier it is to mould neural pathways. So, the thinking goes, if a foetus gets used to tasting vegetables in the womb, then weaning the baby on to nutritious grownup foods will be easier.
According to Peter Hepper, director of the Fetal Research Centre at Queen’s University in Belfast: “foetuses exposed to garlic in the womb are more likely to prefer garlic in later life, indeed studies show up to the age of eight at least.”
A depressing research paper published last year sought to understand the mechanics of why babies whose mothers ate a lot of junk food while pregnant went on to have an increased preference of junk food themselves. Junk food, in this study, is defined as highly palatable, energy-dense and nutrient-poor. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2014
