Strongly flavored foods with volatile compounds, such as those found in vegetables, fruits, garlic, and spices, transmit most easily into the amniotic fluid.
When the babies were weaned and just starting to eat solid foods, the researchers then offered them two kinds of cereal: plain and carrot-flavored.
The babies who had been exposed to carrot juice, either via their mother’s amniotic fluid or their breast milk, were more willing to eat the carrotflavored cereal and were less likely to grimace than those babies who had never tasted carrot.
Further research has been done to test whether the smell transmitted to the amniotic fluid by certain foods was actually discernible. Researchers gave a group of pregnant women either garlic capsules or sugar capsules to swallow, and then took a sample of their amniotic fluid.
When an independent group of people were asked to do a smell test, the samples from the women who had swallowed garlic capsules were readily detectable.
So, it seems you really are what you eat! And, strange as it may seem, whatever you put on your menu is not only filtering straight to your baby, but probably influencing his future taste preferences as well.
French scientists did a study to support this idea: 12 pregnant women were given cookies and candy laced with aniseed during the 10 days or so leading up to birth. Hours after the women had given birth, their babies’ reactions to the smell of aniseed were compared with babies who had not previously been exposed to the smell.
Those who had sensed the strong flavor in the uterus seemed to like it more when presented with it after birth. The babies who had not been exposed to the flavor either reacted with disgust or indifference.
As an extension of this, prenatal and early postnatal exposure to a flavor is believed to enhance infants’ enjoyment of that taste, both when starting solids and beyond into adulthood. This may go some way in explaining why different countries have specific cultural and ethnic preferences for cuisine and flavors.
A Mexican child, for instance, will grow up with preferences for tastes that differ from those shown by a French, Chinese, or Indian child— and this predilection can, to an extent, be explained by their exposure to those very first amniotic tastes. Maintaining a healthy and balanced diet during pregnancy is essential for nourishing your developing baby.
However, by adhering to a varied diet you may well also be paving the way for your child to be born with an innate enjoyment of healthy foods. So next time you are rummaging in the fridge or cookie jar, spare a thought for the little one inside you. A potential sweet tooth could be substituted for a lifelong love of broccoli if you play your cards right.
