As young children, individuals learn methods to discern from environmental preferences that will also allow them to develop certain habits as they mature.
However, a University researcher also suggests that children are able to not only develop negative taste preferences, but to also identify what specific brands cater to their individual palates.
According to a study conducted by T. Bettina Cornwell, a University marketing professor in the Lundquist College of Business, and Anna McAlister, a consumer science researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, children who have a strong knowledge of fast food and soft drink brands also tend to have a high preference of sugar, salt and fat in their diets.
Cornwell said these children also have a tendency to exhibit flavor-hit behaviors, meaning they request certain flavors be added to food, such as ketchup, and seek out foods higher in flavor, including flavored potato chips or sour candies.
“Once a child has experienced a food a number of times, they start to know that they like it,” Cornwell said. “They’re then able to identify it and know the brand relationship. A three-year-old is not going to say, ‘I like it because it’s salty,’ but what we see with the data collection is that they tend to have a high sugar or salt preference if they are knowledgeable about fast food brands.”
Neuroplasticity, the ability for an individual’s brain to change based on experience, is high among children, said Helen Neville, University neuroscientist and Brain Development Lab director.
Cornwell and McAlister completed a year-long study, examining 67 preschoolers from 3 to 5 years old. Cornwell said the study consisted of two specific experiments.
In the first, she and McAlister surveyed mothers about their children’s food preferences, while children arranged the tastiness of 11 natural and 11 flavor-added foods displayed on picture cards without individual labeling or packaging.
In this particular study, Cornwell said parents noted their children’s desire for foods containing salt, sugar or fat, while the children gravitated toward flavor-added foods that contained those ingredients.
Cornwell said it showed that healthy food choices need to be developed among children at a young age to avoid possible obesity issues as they mature.
In the second experiment, Cornwell and McAlister compared a child’s preference to sugary, sweet or fatty food to their awareness of fast food and sweetened beverage brands.
Each child was shown 36 randomly sorted cards, which showed images from popular fast-food chains, leading soda companies and irrelevant products. All the children were able to accurately place some of the product cards with the correct companies, which indicated differing levels of brand recognition.
“I think that we may have underestimated the amount of information and level of sophistication of the very young consumers,” Cornwell said. “Maybe they weren’t on our radar in terms of protecting them because we felt that they weren’t really understanding advertising, but they really do garner a lot from an advertised message. We need to think about whether we want young children very involved with these advertising messages or how we want to go about it from a policy perspective.”
McAlister said the study underscores a “very serious issue amongst children,” who begin to develop tendencies to favor unhealthy foods at a very young age.
The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry noted that nearly 16 to 33 percent of all children and adults nationwide are considered obese.
“Any kind of interventions must really start with very young children,” McAlister said. “When you listen to debates about how to combat obesity, some suggestions talk about educating kids in school or making school lunches healthier, but by the time a child has reached elementary school, they’ve already have some well-established taste preferences. I think speaking to a child that is 7 or 8 years old is already too late.”
McAlister said intervention programs should target preschool-age children in their homes, schools and even fast food restaurants.
Among her recommendations, McAlister said restructuring a child’s eating environment by removing flavor-adding ingredients, such as salt shakers and ketchup bottles.
“Just having that out of sight might mean that children are less likely to think about it or ask for it,” McAlister said. “We also look at restructuring things in restaurants so that healthier, default options are available, so that people can start looking at these choices as normal.”
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