Mum Can I Have Vegetables Again? Development of Vegetable Preferences

Summary

* Rationale: Despite the health benefits, children's consumption of vegetables is below the recommendations. Most human food preferences are learned through mere exposure, imitation, and conditioning principles. During the last years, it has become clear that the development of food preferences starts very early in life. Furthermore, preferences that are learned early in life, are relatively stable and may track into adulthood. However, it is unclear how vegetable preferences develop from infancy until young childhood. In order to influence vegetable consumption, it is essential to study the opportunities to develop a preference for vegetable products early in childhood.
* Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of repeated exposure to vegetables compared to repeated exposure to fruit during weaning on short and long term vegetable and fruit intake. Furthermore, the stability of the learned fruit or vegetable preferences and the later food preferences are measured (i.e. vegetable, fruits, sweets).
* Study design:

In this longitudinal study we will measure the development of preferences for a particular vegetable or fruit type within 4 to 6 months old subjects, during a 19 day exposure period to fruit or vegetables (of which 9 days exposure to the target fruit or vegetable) and 6 months after this exposure period. In addition, we compare the food preferences (fruit, vegetable, sweet foods in general), after 6 months, between infants who were weaned with a variety of fruits and infants who were weaned with a variety of vegetables.

Conditions

• Vegetable Intake After Weaning With Vegetables or Fruits
• Fruit Intake After Weaning With Vegetables or Fruits

Interventions

OTHER

green beans group

Infants were weaned with vegetable purees for the first 18 days of weaning. One vegetable type per day. With green beans every other day.

OTHER

Artichoke group

Infants were weaned with vegetable purees for the first 18 days of weaning. One vegetable type per day. With artichoke every other day.

OTHER

Apple group

Infants were weaned with fruit purees for the first 18 days of weaning. One fruit type per day. With apple every other day.

OTHER

Plums group

Infants were weaned with fruit purees for the first 18 days of weaning. One fruit type per day. With Plums every other day.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Wageningen University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Cees de Graaf, Prof. · Wageningen University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

BASIC_SCIENCE

Masking

TRIPLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

4 Months

Max Age

6 Months

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2009-02-28

Primary Completion

2012-09-30

Completion

2012-09-30

Countries

• Netherlands

Study Locations