Biological and Experiential Factors That Impact the Acceptance of Complementary Foods

Flavor, a complex sensation mediated by the chemical senses of taste, smell, and chemesthesis, is a primary driver of food acceptance. Because what we eat is an important influence on health in modern societies, we need to understand what shapes the acceptance of foods from an early age.

As infants transition from an all-milk diet to one that contains complementary foods of varying flavors and textures, biological factors interact with early experiences in shaping the acceptance or rejection of these complementary foods. Children are naturally drawn to foods that taste sweet or salty. However, repeated exposures to more complex flavors, transmitted from the mother's diet to amniotic fluid and to human milk, and inherent in infant formulas and complementary foods (with 8-10 exposures or more), familiarize and facilitate children's acceptance of the varying sensory properties of foods. Family members modeling eating these foods also encourage acceptance in children. Such functional plasticity, one of the main characteristics of the brain, highlights the ability to change behavior based on experience.