Does Bitter Taste Sensitivity Predict Vegetable Intake in Children?

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Rochester. School of Medicine & Dentistry. Dept. of Public Health Sciences, 2017.Background: The Scientific Report of the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee concludes that the majority of Americans are well below the recommended amounts of vegetable intake compared to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Pattern Recommendations. Bitter taste sensitivity, the ability to detect bitter taste (i.e. “tasters”), has been shown to influence vegetable intake such that individuals with bitter taste sensitivity typically eat less vegetables than individuals without bitter taste sensitivity (i.e. taste blind to bitter, or “non-tasters”). Given that mothers are primarily responsible for food choices in their children, it is plausible that a mother’s bitter taste sensitivity status would impact her child’s vegetable intake. The goal of the current proposal is to determine whether bitter taste sensitivity (mother and child taster status) is associated with vegetable intake in 4-6 year old children. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study in which we recruited 168 mother-child dyads from the Rochester, New York community. We assessed taster status, took anthropometric measures, and collected demographic and vegetable intake from mothers and children. We compared the association between taster status and child outcomes including the child’s mean daily servings of vegetables (intake), the child’s mean number of types of vegetables consumed in the past year (variety), and the child’s weight status. Results: There were no differences in vegetable intake or variety, or in child’s weight status, between tasters and non-tasters (by mother taster status or the child’s own status). We did find a significant increase in the child’s vegetable intake and variety associated with their mother’s mean daily servings of vegetables (change in the child’s mean daily servings of vegetables=0.45, 95% CI: 0.28, 0.61; and change in the child’s mean number of types of vegetables=0.50, 95% CI: 0.07, 0.93), after adjustment for mother taster status and the mother’s perception of her child’s diet quality. Conclusions: Ultimately, even after addressing gaps in the literature, we were still unable to detect any differences in child vegetable intake, variety of vegetables, or child weight status by mother and/or child taster status. While future research exploring the association of the TAS2R38 gene by genotyping may further address limitations, there may truly be no effect of mother and child taster status on child diet or child weight outcomes