Unborn children smile when the mother eats carrots: Another healthy food is not well received

Created: 09/26/2022, 13:02

By: Juliane Gutmann

English researchers have shown how the mother's eating habits affect the embryo in the abdomen - using 4D ultrasound images.

Babies love sweets.

Does this taste show that it must be ripe fruit or something similar that is edible.

Bitter foods, on the other hand, are rejected by many babies in tests.

The cause: Bitter flavors are more of an indication of "unripe, spoiled and potentially toxic", as the specialist portal

informs.

People usually know intuitively early on which foods are good and wholesome for them.

And even unborn babies already have a clear idea of ​​what counts as their favorite foods.

English researchers from the University of Durham have used ultrasound examinations to analyze what makes the smallest of the little ones happy - and what robs them of their good mood.

For example, the unborn babies whose mothers ingested carrot flavoring showed smiling faces, the study shows.

After the mothers ingested cabbage flavors, the fetuses were more likely to make "crying faces," according to the analysis.

An ultrasound image not only shows the gender of the unborn baby.

© Eva Blanco/Imago

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Carrots hui, cabbage pfui: facial expressions of unborn babies show preferences

For their experiment, the researchers used 4D ultrasound images to record the facial expressions of their babies in 100 women in the 32nd and 36th weeks of pregnancy.

The mothers were given a capsule containing around 400 milligrams of carrot or 400 milligrams of cabbage powder about 20 minutes before the scan and did not eat anything flavored for an hour beforehand.

As the German press agency dpa further informed, the facial reactions of the fetuses were compared with those of a control group that had received neither carrots nor cabbage.

Result: Even small amounts flavored with carrots or cabbage were enough to trigger a reaction.

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"Fetuses exposed to the carrot flavor exhibited 'lip corner pullers' and 'laugh face gestures' more frequently, whereas fetuses exposed to the kale flavor exhibited 'upper lip lifters' more frequently, compared to the carrot group and a control group not exposed to any flavor." lower lip presser, lip stretch, lip presser, and scream face gesture.

The complexity of facial gestures increased between weeks 32 and 36 in the kale group, but not in the carrot group,” write the researchers led by Beyza Ustun from the Department of Psychology at Durham University in England in their study, published in the journal Psychological Science was published.

Even in the womb, babies react positively or negatively to some foods, as the scientists at the University of Durham in north-east England found out.

© FETAP Study/Fetal and Neonatal Research Lab/Durham University/dpa

It was known that babies react with aversion to cabbage, according to the dpa.

However, evidence has now been found for the first time that even fetuses in the womb react differently to different smells and tastes, the dpa quotes from the study.

Presumably, the fetuses would therefore develop taste when they inhale and swallow amniotic fluid in the womb.

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