Variety is the spice of life: strategies for promoting fruit and vegetable acceptance during infancy

Abstract

The present manuscript describes two experimental studies that were conducted to explore the effects of an 8-day exposure to a particular food or a variety of foods between and/or within meals on fruit and vegetable acceptance in 74 infants. Whether the dietary experience modified acceptance depended on the flavors of foods experienced, whether the experience occurred between or within meals or both, and whether the target food was a fruit or vegetable. In the first study, we found that 8 days of dietary exposure to pears or a variety of fruits between meals (not including pears) resulted in greater consumption of pears by the infants but this increased acceptance did not generalize to green beans. In the second study, we found that 8 days of vegetable variety both between and within meals led to increased acceptance of green beans, carrots and spinach. Those infants who experienced green beans alone or a variety of vegetables between meals also tended to eat more green beans after the exposure. These findings suggest that not only can infants clearly discriminate flavors but repeated opportunities to taste a particular or a variety of foods may promote willingness to eat fruits and vegetables, the consumption of which is generally low in the pediatric population and the acceptance of which is difficult to enhance beyond toddlerhood.

Fig. 1

The design of the experimental protocol for the two groups in Study 1 (Top Panel) and three groups in Study 2 (Bottom Panel) illustrating the type of foods fed on each day of the 12-day study. On days 1, 2, 11, and 12, the mothers fed their infants the test food(s) at the Monell Center (shaded boxes) whereas on days 3−10 they fed their infants the exposed food(s) at home (unshaded boxes). The exposure occurred during the same meal on each Monell test day and home exposure day. Within each study, the groups differed in the types of foods mothers fed their infants during the home exposure period. Pears indicates the days that the mothers fed their infants pureed pears, GB indicates pureed green beans, Pru indicates pureed prunes, App indicates pureed apples, and Car indicates pureed carrots, Spi indicates pureed spinach, Pea indicates pureed peas and Sq indicates pureed squash.

Fig. 2

Intake of pears (dark bars) and green beans (grey bars) during test sessions at Monell in two groups of infants in Study 1. The groups differed in the types of fruit(s) mothers fed their infants during a target meal during the 8-day home exposure period (closed circles). One group was fed pears (Pear Group; Top Panel A), one was fed a fruit that differed from the one experienced during the preceding two days (BM Fruit Variety Group; Bottom Panel B). *Indicates significant differences when compared to before exposure at the p<0.05 level.

Fig. 3

Intake of green beans (dark bars) and carrots and spinach (grey bars; carrots represented by hatched section of the grey bar) during test sessions at Monell in three groups of infants in Study 2. The groups differed in the types of vegetable(s) mothers fed their infants during a target meal during the 8-day home exposure period. One group was fed green beans (Green Bean Group; Top Panel A), one was fed a vegetable that differed from the one experienced during the preceding two days (BM Vegetable Variety, Middle Panel B) and the other group experienced two different vegetables within a meal and one of these vegetables was different from the ones fed during the prior day (BM–WM Vegetable Variety, Bottom Panel C). *Indicates significant differences at the p<0.05 level and # indicates significance level of p<0.08 when compared to before exposure.