Don’t like kale? Blame your mom. New research shows that babies born to mothers who eat a varied diet while pregnant and breastfeeding grow up to enjoy a wider range of flavors. Moreover, scientists at the Monell Chemical Sense Center concluded that taste preferences are largely developed during critical periods in infancy — meaning that changing food preferences after toddlerhood is a losing battle. If pregnant women didn’t already have enough to feel guilty about, a similar study conducted at the University of Adelaide found that the babies of mothers who ate food like Fruit Loops, Cheetos, and Nutella during pregnancy displayed desensitization to sweet and fatty foods, putting them at increased risk for obesity. So eat for two, but don’t eat Cheetos and Nutella.
