title: Mere exposure and flavour-flavour learning increase 2-3 year-old children's acceptance of a novel vegetable.
abstract: Vegetable consumption is low among many children. This study compared the efficacy of the exposure learning strategies mere exposure, flavour-flavour and flavour-nutrient learning in changing children's intake of a novel vegetable. An unmodified artichoke purée was served at pre-testing. Hereafter children were exposed 10 times to unmodified purée (mere exposure, n=32), a sweetened purée (flavour-flavour learning, n=33) or an energy dense purée with added fat (flavour-nutrient learning, n=39). Unmodified and sweet purée contained approximately 200 kJ/100g; the energy dense purée 580 kJ/100g. The unmodified purée was served again at post-testing, 3 and 6 months after last exposure to monitor long-term effects of learning. Intake of purée increased in the mere exposure and flavour-flavour condition, and was unchanged in the flavour-nutrient condition. Mere exposure changed children's intake by the 5th exposure, flavour-flavour learning by the 10th. Mere exposure led to the largest increase in intake of unmodified purée at post-test and over 6 months. Children following flavour-flavour learning consumed more of the sweet purée than of unmodified purée. About 30-40% of the children were resistant to acceptance changes. The results of this study imply that mere exposure and flavour-flavour learning are powerful strategies for changing children's acceptance of a novel vegetable, even though a substantial number of children are resistant to these types of exposure learning.
authors.affiliation: Department of Food Science, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen, Rolighedsvej 30, DK-1958 Frederiksberg, Denmark. hlh@life.ku.dk
authors.forename: Helene
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hausner
authors.forename: Annemarie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Olsen
authors.forename: Per
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Møller
mesh_terms: D001245:Association Learning; D002675:Child, Preschool; D031943:Cynara scolymus; D004032:Diet; D004041:Dietary Fats; D019422:Dietary Sucrose; D004435:Eating; D002149:Energy Intake; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D005518:Food Preferences; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D013549:Sweetening Agents; D013649:Taste; D014675:Vegetables
chemical_list: D004041:Dietary Fats; D019422:Dietary Sucrose; D013549:Sweetening Agents