More Than Meets The Tongue

3:53 AM |

We all know that candies are good reinforcement for kids. Actually, kids usually like sweet food. This is what we just know about them. It was because we, too, experienced this kind of preference in sweet candies when we were still a child. But, there were researchers that stated that children preferred not only sweet taste but also sour. And so, recently, there is a rising market for sour candies made especially for children. This is what new researchers were trying to find out.

Liem and Mennella conducted an experiment regarding the heightened preference of children on sour taste. In this experiment, the participants were mothers and their children. Mothers were 37.8 ± 0.7 years old on average (31 Caucasian, 26 African American, 1 Asian, and 3 from other ethnic group). Average of children’s age is 7.4 ± 0.2 years old (29 girls and 32 boys). During the experiment mothers and children were given four lemon-flavored gelatins (three has citric acid: 0.02, 0.08, and 0.25 M; one has none) each. A game-like task was done to examine sour preferences. They tasted each of the four gelatins and were asked to point what they liked best. Here, the experimenters used rank-by-elimination and randomized ordered procedure. The first gelatin chose by the participants was removed. With the remaining three, they were again asked to point which among the three was most preferred. This procedure continued until the rank preference was done. To determine reliability, they were given the two most preferred gelatins and were asked to point which they liked best.

After week s later, 24 children and their mothers were selected to participate in the first session. They were trained to distinguish basic tastes: sweet (0.30 M glucose); salty (0.30 M Na gluconate); and sour (0.01 M citric acid). They were then given three pairs of solution that differed in sour intensity. They were asked to focus on the sour taste and to indicate which of the pair tested more sour. Another procedure was done; they were given four gelatins like the first session (three has citric acid: 0.02, 0.08, and 0.25 M; one has none) and were asked to rank them from most to least sour using rank-by-elimination again.

Mothers were given questionnaire about food neophobia (fear of new experience), general neophobia in adults, and five temperament dimensions (emotionality, shyness, activity, sociability, and negative reaction to foods in general) in their children.

Results showed that there were some children who preferred the gelatin with the highest concentration of citric acid while there were children who preferred not as well as the mothers. These results just show that, unlike adults, some children can indicate the sourest taste and would like it than tastes with lower or no sourness.

This study contributes a lot for the people who make food for the children. They now know what taste, beside sweet, children like. And of course it would be a great help for mothers knowing that they could give an alternative food for sweet candies, for example, sour fruits and vegetables as a snack or even rewards or reinforcements. And aside from nutrients they can get, they could also have increased immunity in fighting sicknesses. Heightened preferences in sweetness and sour taste of children may also be a part of their development. Because children at young age need so much sugar for metabolism and acids to be immune for them to grow big and strong. And also these preferences decline through aging. So, children need the sweet and sour food they can eat to be ready for the exhaustive adulthood.

Reference:

Liem, D. G. & Mennella, J. A. (2003). Heightened Sour Preferences During Childhood. Chemical Senses, 28 (2), 173-180. doi: 10.1093/chemse/28.2.173