Babies in the womb like the flavor of carrots and do not like the taste of kale, according to a new study.
Researchers at Durham University identified how babies in the womb react differently to the tastes of foods eaten by the mother via 4D ultrasounds of fetuses. Unborn babies smiled when exposed to carrots, but their lips stretched out in apparent grimaces when given kale, researchers found.
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The study, published in Psychological Science, relied on the ultrasound scans of 100 pregnant women after they ate vegetables. The babies showed more “laughter-face” reactions when exposed to carrots, and they showed more “cry-face” reactions when exposed to kale, the study said.
The fetuses analyzed in the study were at 32 to 26 weeks of gestational age. The reactions were determined by researchers looking at the “complex facial expressions” induced by “multiple muscular actions.”
Researchers said the study had implications for the dietary habits of babies’ eating habits.
“A number of studies have suggested that babies can taste and smell in the womb, but they are based on post-birth outcomes while our study is the first to see these reactions prior to birth. As a result, we think that this repeated exposure to flavours before birth could help to establish food preferences post-birth, which could be important when thinking about messaging around healthy eating and the potential for avoiding ‘food-fussiness’ when weaning,” Beyza Ustun, lead researcher on the study and postgraduate researcher in the Fetal and Neonatal Research Lab, Department of Psychology, Durham University, said in a statement.
Ustun also expressed the excitement at showing the parents the reactions of their unborn babies to food via the ultrasounds.
“It was really amazing to see unborn babies’ reaction to kale or carrot flavours during the scans and share those moments with their parents,” Ustun said.
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The scientists have said they hope to see more research on how flavor exposure in the long term and short term before birth can affect babies’ food preferences after birth.
