A team of researchers analysed data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of more than 7,500 mothers of infants born in and around Bristol in 1991 and 1992. They found that feeding babies home-cooked or raw fruit and vegetables was associated with an increase in consumption and the variety of fruit and vegetables in children at the age of seven.
Weaning babies on ready-prepared fruit and vegetables, such as store bought baby food, had no positive effect on children’s eating habits.
The authors suggest this could be down to the uniform taste and texture of baby food, whereas vegetables cooked at home or eaten raw vary. They say that the variations in taste and texture of fruit and vegetables should expose an infant’s palate to a ‘wider range of experience’, thereby increasing the likelihood they will accept a wider range of foods.
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