Encouraging Nutritious Choices

Problem

How can parents help to improve their children's nutrition?

• Although liking a food plays a primary role in determining what and how much children eat, the relationship between liking and intake of foods and beverages served as a part of a meal is not often reported.

Findings

Researchers conducted an experiment involving 61 children ages 4-6 years to assess the relationship between their liking of foods in a meal and subsequent intake.

• Before being a served a multi-component meal of seven foods (chicken nuggets, ketchup, potato chips, grapes, broccoli, cherry tomatoes, and cookies) and two beverages (fruit punch and milk), the children were asked to rate their liking of each food.
• After the children had eaten as much of the meal as they wanted, the researchers weighed what they ate and compared the results with what the children said they liked and disliked.

Impact

This novel study addressed a common issue of consistency among young children in reporting whether they liked a food or not by also measuring the intake of the foods they rated. The researchers found that rather than just eating what they like, children are more likely to not eat what they dislike.

• With this understanding, intervention programs can be designed to help increase acceptance of highly disliked foods, like vegetables, as well as to encourage children to consume them and to prevent excess plate waste.

Research Credit

Team

• Kathleen Keller, Catherine Shehan, Terri Cravener, Haley Schlechter, John E. Hayes

Participating Department

• Food Science

Partner

• Penn State College of Health and Human Development

Federal and State Appropriations

• USDA NIFA Hatch PEN04708, Accession #1019852

Emerging Discoveries

Children eat what they like, but food intake driven more by what they dislike

February 22, 2022

It is often said that “children eat what they like,” but the results of a new study by Penn State nutritionists and sensory scientists suggests that when it comes to meals, it is more accurate and more relevant to say, “children do not eat what they dislike.”

Published Research

Do children really eat what they like? Relationships between liking and intake across laboratory test-meals.

• Keller, K. L., Shehan, C., Cravener, T., Schlechter, H., & Hayes, J. E. (2022). Do children really eat what they like? Relationships between liking and intake across laboratory test-meals. Appetite, 172, [105946]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2022.105946