Not ALL Children LOVE Sugary, Salty, Fatty Foods

Think ALL children are predisposed to preferring foods with sugar, salt and fat? Think again.

New Research shows:

• German and Spanish kids are twice as likely to prefer high fat foods than kids in Cyprus and Belgium.
• Hungarian, Spanish and Estonian children have a preference for fat, salt and umami (savory), espcially when compared to Swedish, Belgium and Italian children.
• German children are less likely to prefer sweet juice than Swedish, Italian and Hungarian children.

Want to know something else?

Country was the strongest predictor of taste preference.

That means, culture impacts taste preferences more than: 

• Breastfeeding vs formula
• Age at which fruit is introduced
• Television viewing
• Whether or not parents use food as a reward
• Taste sensitivity

Want to know something else?

There are kids who aren't familiar with apple juice.

The researchers couldn't test the sweet preferences of the children in Cyprus because these kids were unfamiliar with apple juice (and the researchers wanted to use a standard sweet medium across the study).

How'd they do it?

Researchers maniuplated the level of sugar in apple juice, and the level of salt, fat and umami in crackers. Then, 1705 six to nine year old children were given paired tastings and asked to indicate which of the pair they liked best.

The study was conducted in Italy, Estonia, Cyprus, Belgium, Sweden, Germany, Hungary and Spain.

You don’t need to move across the world to solve a picky-eating problem. You just have to establish a foreign culture at home.

Forget about feeding the American way, and start seriously rethinking what, when and why you offer the foods that you do.  Read Food Culture and What It Means to be "Child-Friendly."

~Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits.~

Source: Lanfer, A., K. Bammann, K. Knof, K. Buchecker, P. Russo, T. Veidebaum, Y. Kourides, S. de Henauw, D. Molnar, S. Bel-Serrat, L. Lissner, and W. Ahrens. 2013. “Predictors and Correlates of Taste Preferences in European Children: the IDEFICS Study.” Food Quality and Preference 27: 128-36.

The Miracle of Yogurt-Covered Cereal

Yogurt is the modern version of the old fashioned "miracle cure" medication. 

You know, those miracle medications that were peddled at circuses and carnivals in the Wild West? They had the ability to cure any disease, even prolong life?

These days, if you put yogurt on anything, especially Greek yogurt, you can make it healthy.

Abracadabra. Hocus Pocus. Presto Chango. Shazam.

Post Honey Bunches of Oats Greek Honey Crunch is the newest miracle.

It's a bit of magical thinking to call the yogurt that's in this cereal yogurt. It's a pinch of yogurt powder mixed in here and there with whole-grain wheat, oats, sugar, rice, corn meal and oil. Yum.

Check out the ingredients.

Maybe that's why the Center for Science in the Public Interest's Nutrition Action Health Letter calls this Honey Bunches of BS.

According to the CSPI April Health Letter:

• The yogurt powder is heat treated, which kills the active yogurt cultures. And,
• The protein, which is only 1 gram more than the regular Honey Roasted Honey Bunches of Oats, comes from milk protein isolate, whey, and non-fat dry milk solids...not from yogurt.

If that's not enough...when I looked at the ingredient list I saw that sugar shows up 11 times. Eleven Times!

Give your kids this cereal if they like it—as an occasional treat.

But don't teach them this stuff is actually yogurt.

Read Is "Yogurt-Covered" Really Yogurt? for more on yogurt miracles.

And if you want your kids to reap the benefits of yogurt, give them the real stuff.

Preferably in plain.  Read The Magic of Yogurt.

"I feel healthy" the woman in the ad says. Proof the magic is working!

~Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits.~

"Crunches Like an Apple. Tastes Like a Grape."

Have you heard about Grapple?

Say 'Grape-L'  

My husband and I ran across Grapples in the store yesterday. Imagine an apple crossed with a grape Pixy Stix.  Yum.

Turning a natural food into a processed food.  That's value added!

Are they nuts?

The website touts:

• The newest thing in apples.
• Eating healthy has never been this much fun!
• Apples are a fantastic snack. Grapes are a wonderful snack. Try a Grāpple® brand apple today, and enjoy the best of both of them in one!
• A relaxing bathing process prepares our apples for you or your kids.

More from their website: Q) Why does it say ‘Natural and Artificial Flavor’ ?

A) Our main flavor ingredient is the same synthesized grape flavoring agent used in 100’s of other retail food items. Because it is not feasible for us to ‘crush all of the flavor’ we would need from grapes themselves, we are forced to say ‘Natural and Artificial Flavor’. The grape flavoring is the same that you would get out of Mother Nature’s grapes themselves.

It's tempting to get outraged.  Believe me, that's where I went first. But when you think about it...

Is this any different than fortifying grape juice with Vitamin C (so manufacturers can say it's more than sugar water)?

JUICY JUICE INGREDIENTS:

APPLE JUICE, AND GRAPE JUICE (WATER, JUICE CONCENTRATES), AND LESS THAN 0.5% OF NATURAL FLAVORS, ASCORBIC ACID (VITAMIN C), CITRIC ACID

Actually, Grapples might even be better than juice.

From a habits perspective, a juice habit is likely to lead to a soda habit.  A Grapple habit would lead to an apple habit.

~Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits.~