I am taking a motivational psychology class this semester and learned some interesting info that all parents should know before they threaten their kids lives over a few bites of broccoli!!
Some Facts:
We're born preferring sweet tastes; we have to learn to like everything else. There's a good reason why we prefer sweet tastes.
Some sour or bitter substances are poisonous but very few sweet tasting things are.
Hundreds of thousands of years ago our prehistoric ancestors who ate sour or bitter things were more likely to perish, those who ate only sweet things were more likely to survive. Liking sweet tastes was a survival mechanism that has been passed down to us. Thousands of years ago it was adaptive.
Most of the time when a child refuses vegetables he's not being willful or malicious; the reluctance to try unfamiliar tastes was inherited.
So remember next time your child won't eat some foods that its due to biological and learned factors!
If your child was breastfed he may have a slight advantage in learning to like new foods because the taste of breast milk varied from day to day depending on what Mom's been eating. The breastfed baby is accustomed to different tastes so it's easier to try something new. In contrast, the taste of formula is always the same so it might take longer for a bottle fed infant to accept a new taste.
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