Taste Rules for Kids and Healthy Food Choices

Sweet and salty flavors, repeat exposure, serving size and parental behavior are the key drivers in children’s food choices.

“Children’s decision making has few dimensions,” explained Dr. Adam Drewnowski (CQ), director of the Center for Public Health Nutrition and professor of epidemiology at the School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle.

Not surprisingly, children lean toward sweets like cookies, chocolate, fruits and juices as well as salty foods that make them feel full like French fries and pizza.

But environment, peer groups, family, and exposure to a variety of menu items play a key role in children’s food choices.

Kirtland Peterson

Read more