Why do children have picky appetites? Scientists have an answer
In the course of the study, scientists studied the peculiarities of eating habits of twins
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The tendency of children to be picky about food is determined by genetics. According to scientists, this feature reaches its peak at the age of 7.
This is stated in a study by British scientists, published in the scientific journal Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, informs The Guardian.
To find out how heredity affects picky eating, scientists analyzed data from more than 4,800 twins from Great Britain.
Both identical twins, who have identical genes, and twins who have only 50% of their DNA in common took part in the study.
First, parents were asked about their children’s eating habits at the age of 16 months. Later, when the twins reached the age of 3, 5, 7 and 13, the scientists collected this data again.
The observations showed that, on average, the children’s fussiness about food did not change much between the beginning and the end of the study.
Instead, the study authors observed that food pickiness peaked at age 7, followed by a slight decline in fussiness.
Scientists, having investigated the causes of pickiness, concluded that the dominant factor was DNA.
In particular, genetic variation explained 60% of the differences in fussiness at 16 months of age. The figures rise to over 74% between the ages of 3 and 13.
The scientists also found that picky eating habits were more similar between identical twins than among other study participants.
“The main conclusion of this work is that picky eating is not a result of parenting. It really comes down to the genetic differences between us.”– explains the author of the study, Zeynep Nas, a behavioral geneticist from University College London (Great Britain).
This discovery, according to the authors of the study, indicates that the consumption of only a limited number of types of foods and resistance to suggestions to try something new among children is more a consequence of heredity than upbringing.
The authors of the study say that this should not make parents feel powerless.
“Genetics is not a sentence. Parents can continue to support their children to eat a variety of foods throughout childhood and adolescence.”says Zeynep Nas.
Researchers have also discovered other factors that influence the tendency to be fussy about food, in particular features of the social environment. It is about the family’s practice of having dinners together and the peculiar dishes they eat.
Children’s environment was of particular importance for their eating behavior under the age of three. Therefore, scientists advise parents to offer their children more variety in food during this period of life.
However, later, between ages 7 and 13, personal experiences, such as having friends with different eating habits, explained about 25% of the variation in levels of picky eating.
In 2023, Dr. Nicola Pirastu from the Italian research institute Human Technopole discoveredthat people’s food preferences are formed thanks to the brain’s response to different tastes.
At the same time, genetic predispositions determine what the brain’s responses to taste will be.
We used to toldhow in 7 steps they helped the child to form healthy eating behavior, which will help to adhere to a balanced diet.
