{"id":11270,"date":"2022-12-20T20:16:37","date_gmt":"2022-12-21T01:16:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seeds.ca\/schoolfoodgardens\/?p=11270"},"modified":"2023-01-24T08:49:36","modified_gmt":"2023-01-24T13:49:36","slug":"why-do-kids-dislike-vegetables-how-aging-affects-tastes-bubs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seeds.ca\/schoolfoodgardens\/why-do-kids-dislike-vegetables-how-aging-affects-tastes-bubs\/","title":{"rendered":"Why do Kids Dislike Vegetables? How Aging Affects Taste Buds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why do Kids Dislike Vegetables? How Aging Affects Taste Buds<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Written By: Cece Ndiwa
\nEdited By: Advita G.
\nDesigned By: Cece Ndiwa
\nPublished By: Miriam Alonge Wato<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s commonly seen as a fact that kids and toddlers love sweets but dislike vegetables. This stereotype is seen everywhere in movies and television and if you ask any parent, they would adamantly tell you about the struggle it is to get children to eat vegetables. Although some people believe that it could be just chalked up to the kids themselves, there are some studies that show that children are biologically wired to dislike vegetables. Remarkably enough, many people that grew up stubbornly avoiding vegetables say that they simply outgrew their hatred for vegetables. All this raises the question: how does your sense of taste change as you age?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Childhood and bitter foods<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

As to answer why kids dislike eating vegetables, scientists have concluded that the human brain has evolved to dislike bitter food as they signify toxic and poisonous food. Because vegetables have a large component of calcium and other beneficial constituents such as phenols and flavonoids, falling into the category of bitter foods, this leads to children preferring saltier and sweet foods. When these children grow up eating vegetables, they build a higher tolerance to the bitterness of vegetables, which explains why most adults start to embrace their taste (while a younger version of them may have avoided them).\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Additionally, sweeter and unhealthy foods are typically associated with happier memories. Many parents treat eating out and getting candies after behaving well typically leading children to associate these foods as rewards. This means that kids may not necessarily dislike vegetables but they may dislike the memories like their parents nagging them that they associate with vegetables<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Aging and taste buds<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

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Previously it was mentioned that many adults overcome their distaste towards vegetables through repeated exposure. However, another factor responsible for this would be that you taste buds change as you get older. Humans are typically born with around 10,000 taste buds only decreasing from ages 40 to 50. This means that it gets harder to distinguish sweet, salty and bitter foods.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Another thing to note, while some people may have enjoyed scarfing down copious amounts of sweets while they were young, some of them note that eating those same sweets just doesn’t taste the same. For many adults and older people, the taste of sugar and candy is far too overwhelming because children have evolved to prefer foods with more calories such as sugary foods.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What can you do to help children eat vegetables?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

You won\u2019t be-leaf this (pun-intended!) but here are a couple of things parents can do to get their kids to eat vegetables!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n