This is just nice to know, being otherwise inexplicably fussy myself. ~ Ilene
A child's life-long relationship with food and whether or not they are likely to become fussy eaters begins in the womb and is heavily shaped by what they eat in the first few months of life, studies suggest.
Scientists have found that the human foetus is able to detect the subtle flavours of food eaten by pregnant women by "smelling" the amniotic fluid in which they bathe.
Newborn babies continue to be influenced by food flavours, with separate research showing that the greater the variety of tastes they experience at six months, the more likely it is that they will not reject new kinds of food later on, said Benoist Schaal of the University of Bourgogne in Dijon.
Keep reading: Fussy eating habit begins in womb – Health News – Health & Families – The Independent.
See also: Planet of the Apes: Why we hate broccoli
…"The interesting thing about bitter taste is that it plays a basic role in survival of animals," he said. It's part of a plant-animal arms race in which toxic and bitter compounds help the plants avoid being eaten by the animals. The bitter receptors help the animals avoid being poisoned by the plants.
We humans have about 25 genes controlling our ability to taste bitter compounds, Wooding said, and the one Tishkoff's group studied helps us detect toxins that attack the thyroid and cause goiter.
