The benefits of a healthy diet during pregnancy are well known.
You are what you eat, as the saying goes, and so too is your growing fetus.
And that is why you need a diet rich in organic fruit and veg, whole foods, and lean proteins to keep both mom and baby nourished.
Pregnancy diet
But did you know that what you eat while your baby is in the womb can actually affect what they like and don't like on the outside?
A recent Appetite journal study examined the relationship between the quality of the mother’s diet during pregnancy and her child's tastebuds at five years.
Children develop patterns of taste and flavor acceptance from the mom's diet during pregnancy and breastfeeding.
Taste buds only start working during the third trimester and can then be stimulated by foods eaten by the mother through the amniotic fluid.
However, the fetus experiences food odors and flavors earlier than this, which may determine food preferences later in life.
The research
Earlier research has shown a strong link between excessive weight gain in childhood and the mother’s diet during pregnancy.
Since appetitive traits are also important in childhood obesity, the current study examined how maternal diet was related to appetitive traits at five years of age in the offspring.
Read the full findings here.