Some children just hate to eat their vegetables and others crave sweet, salty, or fatty foods. Although packaging, family and social attitudes toward food influence taste preferences, some children have taste disorders that cause them to avoid healthy foods. Taste disorders can lead to eating disorders and obesity. An Australian study found that nearly one in 10 children have a taste disorder. Surprisingly, two thirds of the children with a taste disorder could not taste sweets properly. Other studies have found that about 70 percent of children are sensitive to bitter taste.
Ear infections
Taste disorders are linked to both obesity and ear infections.
The study
Researchers at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, tested 432 school children, age 8 to 12 years old, and found that about 10 percent could not identify a sweet, salt, sour, or bitter taste in a water-based drink. Loss of taste for sweets was greatest.
Cause of taste disorders
Bell’s palsy, diabetes, and renal disease can cause taste disorders, but researchers in the Australian study believe that childhood chronic middle ear infections may be the major cause of non-genetic taste disorders. A group of children (indigenous Australian children) with greater susceptibility to ear infections had more taste disorders than non-indigenous children with fewer ear infections. A South Korean study also found a strong link between the inability of children to identify sweet and salty taste and chronic middle ear infections.
Bitter taste
About 70 percent of children are sensitive to bitter taste, according to some studies.
Cause of bitter taste sensitivity
Rejecting bitter foods may be an evolutionary protective mechanism, because many toxic plants and substances have a bitter taste. Children with super bitter taste sensitivity perceive healthful vegetables such as spinach, cabbage, broccoli, and onions as bitter. The children are reacting to the calcium content in these vegetables. Some children, who are overly sensitive to bitter foods, may have a variant of the TAS2R38 gene which codes for a bitter taste receptor.
Remedies
In a study, published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 152 pre-school children were served broccoli for a snack over a seven-week period. Bitter-sensitive children ate 80 percent more broccoli when it was served with ranch dressing, regardless of whether it was low fat or not. So if you add a dip, you may increase the amount of healthful vegetables in your children’s diet. Using a nutritious dip such as humus may be an extra plus.
Adding dip may not be the only way to increase the consumption of vegetables by children. A Spanish study found that letting children in public schools choose the vegetables they wanted to eat increased the amount of vegetables consumed by 80 percent. Children in this study were not selected for sensitivity to bitter taste.
Turning bitter taste off
A study in mice has identified a protein in taste cells that prevents sensitivity to bitter taste. Mice that lack the gene for this protein are very sensitive to bitter taste. This suggests that people who have less of this protein in their taste cells may be super sensitive to bitter taste. This type of research may lead to a drug that turns off super sensitivity to bitter taste.
Sources
Laing, D. et al. Taste disorders in Australian Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children. Acta Paediatrica (2011) 100: 1267
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110321161912.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110802180822.htm
http://www.adajournal.org/article/S0002-8223(11)01498-2/abstract
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/06/110602084232.htm