The importance of exposure for healthy eating in childhood: a review

Abstract

Children's food preferences are strongly associated with their consumption patterns. Identifying the factors that influence preferences is therefore crucial to the development of effective interventions to improve children's diets. Perhaps the most important determinant of a child's liking for a particular food is the extent to which it is familiar. Put simply, children like what they know and they eat what they like. From the very earliest age, children's experiences with food influence both preferences and intake, and research suggests that the earlier and broader that experience, the healthier the child's diet. Laboratory studies of children's food acceptance have indicated that repeated opportunities to taste unfamiliar foods results in increased liking and consumption. In order to investigate whether these results can be replicated in real-world situations, a series of naturalistic studies testing the efficacy of exposure-based interventions have been carried out. In a school-based study large increases in liking and intake of raw red pepper were seen in 5- to 7-year olds and two further studies, in which mothers used exposure techniques to increase children's acceptance of vegetables, achieved similar results. If future large-scale interventions prove to be successful, training could be offered to health professionals or directly to parents themselves.

Evaluation of the impact of school gardening interventions on children's knowledge of and attitudes towards fruit and vegetables. A cluster randomised controlled trial

“…Gardening can increase children's exposure to FV and to positive modelling of peers and adults. Repeated exposure to FV can have a positive impact on liking and intake (Anzman-Frasca, Savage, Marini, Fisher, & Birch, 2012;Cooke, 2007). Gardening can provide opportunities for FV tasting and for learning in an interactive manner how fruit and vegetables are grown and their benefits to health (Ozer, 2007).…”

An Early Feeding Practices Intervention for Obesity Prevention

“…5,15,17,18 Healthy food preferences are developed by exposing infants to a wide variety of textures and healthy foods while also limiting exposure to sweet, salty, and fatty foods. [19][20][21][22] These protective maternal feeding practices are potentially modifiable targets for early obesity prevention interventions. We report on the long-term outcomes (at ages 3.5 and 5 years) of 1 of few randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to have evaluated obesity prevention interventions targeting complementary feeding practices.…”

Challenges of Healthy Eating Habits in Rural Communities

“…3 Research has shown that children who start trying new foods and have plentiful options to choose from at an early age appear to have healthier diets throughout childhood. 4 Exposure to new foods at an early age as well as positive reinforcement from a parental figure or valued opinion has shown to aid in children and adolescents to be more involved in healthy eating behaviors. 4 The implications of unhealthy eating habits cannot be overemphasized.…”

“…4 Exposure to new foods at an early age as well as positive reinforcement from a parental figure or valued opinion has shown to aid in children and adolescents to be more involved in healthy eating behaviors. 4 The implications of unhealthy eating habits cannot be overemphasized. It was noted that people with easy access to energy dense, inexpensive foods (unhealthy food choices) combined with less energy expenditure (physical activity) requirements in their daily life tended to show a higher rate of obesity.…”