Elsevier

Physiology & Behavior

Volume 83, Issue 3, 15 December 2004, Pages 421-429
Physiology & Behavior

Sweet and sour preferences in young children and adults: role of repeated exposure

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2004.08.028Get rights and content

Abstract

We investigated the influence of repeated exposure to orangeades with added sucrose and different concentrations of citric acid, on the taste preferences of 6- to-11-year-old children and young adults.

During an intervention study of 8 days, 59 children (9.2±0.9 years) and 46 young adults (22±2.0 years) received, each day, either an orangeade with a sweet taste, a sour taste, or no orangeade (control). Before (baseline) and after the intervention, preferences for a series of orangeades and yoghurt, which varied in balance of sweet and sour tastes, were measured by means of a rank-ordering procedure. The variation in balance of sweet and sour taste was established by adding different amounts of citric acid (orangeade: 0.009, 0.013, 0.020, 0.029, 0.043, and 0.065 M added citric acid; yoghurt: 0.027, 0.038, 0.056, 0.081, 0.12, and 0.17 M added citric acid) to a stock orangeade and yoghurt with 0.42 M sucrose. The sweet and sour tasting orangeade that were consumed during the intervention were equally preferred at baseline.

After an 8-day exposure to the sweet orangeade, children's preferences for this orangeade (0.42 M sucrose) significantly increased (p<0.05). A similar trend was observed for the yoghurt with 0.42 M sucrose (p=0.09). An 8-day exposure to the sour orangeade did not have a significant effect on children's preference for this orangeade. The taste preferences of adults did not change after the intervention. The control group of children and adults did not show any change in preferences for sweet and sour tastes.

Future research is needed to investigate whether the changed preferences for sweet taste are stable over time and how these changed taste preferences are related to a change in the consumption of sugar rich foods.

Introduction

In recent years, obesity in children has been a growing health problem in Western countries [1]. Obesity in childhood is associated with risk factors for cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, such as diabetes [2]. Childhood obesity is related with food choice and intake [3], [4]. Choice and intake of children are influenced by a variety of factors [5], among which are parental behavior [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], social environment [11], and sensory preferences [12], [13], [14]. The present study will focus on sensory preferences.

Many studies showed that children have a preference for high concentrations of sucrose in foods [15], [16], [17], [18], [19], [20]. This preference for high concentrations of sucrose has been positively related to a high consumption of sucrose containing foods [12], [21], [22]. Besides the preference for sweet taste, a recent study suggested that some children also have a preference for extremely sour-tasting foods [23]. In both adults [24] as well as in children [23], it has been suggested that those who preferred high concentrations of citric acid (sour taste) experienced greater dietary diversity when compared with those who did not prefer these high concentrations of citric acid. It remains to be investigated how preferences for sweet and sour tastes are developed and how they can be modulated.

It has been suggested that a long-term repeated exposure to sweet [25] and sour [22], [26] tastes during infancy enhances young children's preferences for these tastes. Beauchamp and Moran [25] suggested that repeated exposure to sweetened water during infancy was positively related to high preferences for sweet taste in water at two years of age. In the same line, recent studies have suggested that repeated exposure to a sour-tasting baby formula during infancy is related to a high preference for sour taste in young children [22], [26].

Causality could, however, not be drawn from these studies. Studies that did investigate the effect of repeated exposure of a food on subsequent preference in an experimental design mostly used whole food products rather than being focused on one taste dimension [27], [28], [29]. Moreover, most studies used novel foods [30], [31], [32]. An increase in preference for novel foods after repeated exposure could also be due to a reduction in food neophobia rather than an increase in preference for the specific taste of the food [33].

We investigated whether the preference for sweet and sour tastes in two different foods can be changed in children and adults after a short repeated exposure to sweet or sour taste in orangeade.

Section snippets

General overview

Children and adults were divided into three groups. One group consumed, for 8 days, orangeade with a sweet taste (hereafter referred to as Sweet Group). Another group consumed, for 8 days, orangeade with a sour taste (hereafter referred to as Sour Group). A third group did not consume any orangeade during these 8 days (hereafter referred to as Control Group). Before (baseline) and after the intervention, preference for a series of sweet–sour orangeade and yoghurt was determined. The sweet and

Results

The characteristics of subjects in the Sour, Sweet, and Control Groups are listed in Table 1. No differences in gender or BMI were observed between the different experimental groups within each age category (i.e., children and adults). Children in the Control Group were significantly older than were the children in the Sweet (U=29.0, p<0.001) and the Sour Groups (U=35.5, p<0.001). Children in the Sweet, Sour, and Control Groups did not differ in their baseline SS-preference scores.

Children

Discussion

The present study showed that after an 8-day repeated exposure to orangeade with a high concentration sucrose during childhood, children's preferences for this orangeade significantly increased. A similar trend was observed for yoghurt with a high concentration of sucrose. This increased preference for a high concentration of sucrose was specific for the exposed high concentration of sucrose and seems to be not specific for the food that sucrose was exposed in. Adults did not change their taste

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the expert technical assistance of Ms. Krista Lam and Ms. Judie van den Elshout. Also, the participation of the children and teachers at the Prinsenakker elementary school is greatly acknowledged.

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