Fruit Intake After Weaning With Vegetables or Fruits Clinical Trial
Official title:
Mum Can I Have Vegetables Again? Development of Vegetable Preferences.
- 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.
n/a
Allocation: Randomized, Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment, Masking: Double Blind (Subject, Caregiver, Investigator), Primary Purpose: Basic Science