As a child, there were a number of foods I wouldn't eat because my parents wouldn't eat them. Anything cheesy or super spicy was off the table for me, but as I grew older and I tried new things, I realized I actually liked the flavor of these ingredients despite what I grew up thinking. My own experience made me wonder: How many of our food habits do we actually get from our parents?
To get to the bottom of this, I spoke with Courtney Hines, a registered dietician who works with KinderCare Education. As an expert in child nutrition, Courtney said several factors affect how kids eat: "If you eat most of your meals on the go, standing up over the sink or while driving, children learn that meals are to be rushed through so they can get to the next thing," she explained. "That can also make it difficult for children to learn to understand their body’s cues for fullness, which can lead to poor eating habits later in life."
Children absorb parent and guardian behavior when it comes to food: how they speak about food, how they eat, and what they eat. "The key is repetition, repetition, repetition. Keep offering a wide variety of foods, even if it seems like your child is rejecting what you offer. Persistence can pay off," she said.
In some cases, there are genetic factors that lead to food preferences, such as allergies. "If one parent is highly allergic to a specific kind of food, their children have a higher chance of inheriting that same food allergy," Hines elaborated, noting how exposure and culture can help with non-genetic related food preferences.
There's also the common opinion that cilantro "tastes like soap" to some people. In the specific instance of cilantro, those individuals may have a variation in a group of olfactory-receptors which make the herb taste soapy...and genetics may also be the reason some food allergies get passed down.
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Ultimately, for food preferences not rooted in genetics, there is always the chance for people to unlearn their dietary preferences by trying new foods often and cooking them in different ways to accomplish a certain taste. For children, especially, trying new things is a must.
Per Hines: "It's important to note that children's taste buds are changing all of the time, so trying foods again and again is the key to establishing new food habits or preferences. It takes time for children to get used to new tastes and textures, which is why it’s so important to introduce them to a wide variety of foods from an early age."
I know that's true for me. I had to learn how to like things by eating them as often as possible, whether it was sneaking a piece of calamari every time it was in front of me until I actually enjoyed it or putting cheese into familiar foods, like sandwiches, until I realized I liked how they tasted alone. Now I know I didn't inherit those habits from my parents, they're just one of the only lessons from them I had to unlearn.
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How Our Eating Habits Come From Our Parents - Delish.com
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