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Does what we are feed as children really cause us to crave it?

3K views 35 replies 28 participants last post by  bent 
#1 ·
Do we really crave the foods we were feed as a child? Will our children really crave boxed pizza if that is what we fed them?

First glance I would say yes. That is what all the parenting papers say. And I did make homemade baby food for my kids and whole wheat bread for a reason, right?

But I wonder if that is really totally true. Or do they just crave the box frozen pizza because they have not had better tasting food?

I was visiting my mom with the children for spring break. She cooked supper. A boxed frozen pizza. I grew up on boxed pizza, spaghetti oh's, and box mac and cheese. This boxed pizza was suppose to be childhood memory and taste ingrained flavor for me.

As I was eating the pizza, I was thinking on how it did not taste like food No cheese flavor none of the veggies taste even though it was a supreme pizza and the crust didn't really taste like anything either, maybe a stale cracker. I was thinking this and choking it down and the same moment my mom was very please at how yummy it was. I was polite and ate my pizza as did the children without a word of complaint.

When we got home the children mentioned that they did not like grandma's pizza.

Hubby always said I was waiting for good food and I found it as a grown up. But that doesn't fit with you feed your kids junk they will crave junk.

Do we crave the food we were feed as a child or do we crave the best tasting food we have had no matter when we first tried it?
 
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#2 ·
I notice that I sometimes crave foods that remind me of people (family) or places or vacations. Sometimes I feel like i'm just craving it because I like it or once liked it but maybe it's because I associate it with a memory and that is what actually makes me crave it.
 
#3 ·
I've never heard that.

A lot of food preferences are habits. That means, in the short term you might crave something, but if you resist the temptation to eat it, you'll eventually most likely lose the taste for junk foods and also lose the cravings.

Case in point: When we were first married, we ate a lot of greasy breakfast sausages. We both had those growing up as kids and thought they were so wonderful. Over time, we quit eating them in favor of more healthy foods. Fast forward about 25 years and we bought our motor home. We decided we were going to treat ourselves to some tasty breakfast sausage to celebrate during our first trip. Surprise, it didn't taste as good as we remembered, and the grease made us feel sick after we ate it.

I always thought my mom was a good cook when I was a kid. She cooked a lot from scratch, so it wasn't like we got bad food except it was often high in fat, sodium, and cholesterol. Very few fresh veggies, mostly limp, overcooked stuff either home canned or from cans from the store. Almost every meal had heavy gravy and whole milk. These days, we rarely eat any of that, can't stand the greasiness of whole milk, and much prefer fresh or steamed veggies, or veggies grilled or cooked tender-crisp. We don't eat greasy foods, and we eat a wider variety. My mom always thinks she's doing us a big favor to make us some greasy dish, and we let her think that. But I would never cook that way and we don't really like the way that food tastes anymore, even though when we were first married I cooked the same way because that's what I learned growing up.

I'm sure if we went back to eating that way, we'd crave those foods again, but it wouldn't be because of what we ate as kids, it would be due to changed habits.
 
#4 ·
I know I have outgrown alot of my child hood favorites, boxed frozen fried clams, Chef Boyardee raviolis, campbells soup. I used to hate vegetables. As an adult I realized that I LOVE vegetables, I just HATE canned vegetables and thats what I grew up on.

when you're a child for the most part you don't really have a choice in what your parents feed you but as you grow older and start to cook for yourself is when I found out that I really like a lot of foods, just didn't like the way my mother cooked them.
 
#5 ·
I haven't found that to be true for myself. My mom required us to bring packed lunches to school for years. The only lunch meats she'd buy were bologna, Cotto salami, and English sausage. I detest those now and won't buy them unless my kids ask (they don't). The other foods I liked as a child- hot dogs, Spaghettios, I also don't like as an adult, but others, such as baked potatoes and salad, I still do.
 
#6 ·
Well, I know I did not grow up on fast food OR soda and I still don't like either. I do however, like home made mac and cheese, home made soups and home made pies and cakes. I can't stand any of those foods from packages. We never had packaged food...and I still don't eat it. I really dislike eating out in general...we never out out as kids. Ever. I think my kids picked up a taste for all the junk when they had visitation with their dad and that's all he fed them.
 
G
#7 ·
I'm not sure. Some things I had as a kid I still crave - in particular whole milk. I can tolerate 2% but won't drink anything less. I like real butter instead of margarine.

There's a lot of junk I ate too, and some of that I still like, but I don't eat it the same way. Before I would look at Velveeta Mac and Cheese as a meal, now I consider it a treat just like ice cream or cake.
 
#8 ·
I grew up on cheap food and I just can't abide somethings.
Like canned pasta,bagged lunchmeat,cheap potpies,ect.

I do miss moms creme puffs,apple crisp,and iron skillet pancakes.
My Dh on the other hand loves canned hash,squeezy cheese,cafeteria food,and canned pasta.
So no for me
yes for him
He keep wanting meatloaf w/ a hard boiled egg in the middle?
 
#10 ·
I love stuffing hard boiled eggs in my meatloaf! I never knew there was a commercial version of it? LOL
 
#9 ·
Years ago I heard a radio report on a study that mentioned a predisposition to certain food tastes were defined in utero, that children will demonstrate preferences to foods that the mother ate during her pregnancy. The study gave general preferences such as rice vs beans vs flour etc.

I really wish I could find the original study to read. The report also linked how well the adult body (I think this was also tested in a lab) responded to significant dietary changes from in utero development to adulthood. Example: if a fetus was exposed to limited nutrition during gestation their body would handle a lean diet better than a rich diet later in life. Likewise if a fetus had a rich diet then it would handle a rich diet better later in life as well, not a lean one.
 
#13 ·
I learned that in college during development psychology started at conception through teenager years. Baby also start showing a preference for the native language (or language most spoken by the mother.

Here is a npr article about the food preferences forming in utero and during breastfeeding.

Baby's Palate And Food Memories Shaped Before Birth : NPR

Several articles came up when one googles preferences for food formed in the womb
 
#11 ·
no,no commercial version but his dmom would make that. It just seems wrong to me? Like a turducken.lol

My mother would throw all the leftovers together and call it slumgullion. Thats NOT what dad called it and he would eat whatever was placed in front of him. I used to laugh as a kid. He would take a bite say "yucks" and take another bite. I was a kid so I said dad why do you eat it if you don't like it. He said its food you eat it to run your body. You don't have to like it. So many people today would not get that.
 
#14 ·
I still like the same food I did as a kid. I like MORE foods now than I did but I still like the same food that I did back then. Can't think of one I don't like.
 
#15 ·
My tastes have definitely changed over the years. There are a lot of things I ate as a child that, like others said, just seem bland or too greasy now. And there are things that I loved as a young adult, just learning to cook, that I no longer enjoy. What I did keep was an adventurous palate, after growing up in foreign countries and tasting a lot of different things.
 
#17 ·
I know that my tastes have changed dramatically since childhood, but I was raised in a home where my grandmother only cooked things from a can, box, frozen pre-made, or "kit" and I can't stand most of those things now. Actually, I didn't much like them then either, just didn't get a say-so lol. I use canned vegetables on occasion, but never any canned pasta, hamburger helper, frozen lasagna, formed chicken patties/nuggets, etc cause just the thought of them makes me queasy. My kids get served those things when they stay with her, and for the most part, they don't like them either.
 
#18 ·
When i was younger and being a only child left at home. Me and my parents did eat out alot. Fast food was burger king and Taco bell.Your talking 25 - 30 years ago. Most of the time (3 times a week) we went to a sit down nice dinner type meal. Steak and seafood was a huge thing. Lobster was yummy then and i still crave it now. Steak was also a huge thing crave it but can't have it.
 
#19 ·
the only craving i have that has stayed the same over the years
is glazed donut and yoo hoo drink

it was a treat i got when we went to visit my grandfather at the corner store he worked at - and then when he closed the store we all walked up the street to his house and sat on the porch on an old metal porch glider and ate them and waited for the stars to come out .

so my craving goes with a good memory
 
#21 ·
I do get cravings now and then but with all the allergies I can't eat it. Also, many of the foods I enjoyed as a kid are made differently now and have more ingredients. It wasn't until I bought organic carrots that I realized how bad the regular carrots are in taste. Kept on thinking, yea, this is how I remember carrots tasting.
 
#22 ·
I don't really eat anything that I ate as a child, at least not in a way that is similar. Yeah, I'll eat a roast, but it's wildly different than how my mother made it. I make chili, but it has a heck of a lot more ingredients than hers, and tastes quite different. None of the things I eat remind me of what I ate as a child.

Maybe Thanksgiving dinner, which is quite traditional. It's what I like, it's what I always ate, and it's what I will likely eat for the foreseeable future.
 
#23 ·
I was very ill when pregnant with my youngest child. The only thing I could (kind of) tolerate were junky starchy foods. My 3 older kids are great about eating healthy foods. My youngest much prefers junky starchy foods- we struggle to get her to eat anything decent. I do think that what I ate while she was in utero does play a part in her taste preferences now.

As for me, we were not allowed junk food as children. They were kind of even taboo. I had a hard time buying them as an adult because I felt like I was doing something wrong. Still do.

I prefer healthy foods like my mom cooked with my own twist, but occasionally GORGE myself on a forbidden food. I don't think I learned how to regulate junk foods in the house so if they are there I will eat them. Therefore, we do not buy them.
 
#26 ·
Maybe certain special things like a good homade cake or pie but in general our family was a meat, veggie, starch family, our veggies from the garden and to be honest while I try to eat but we also had the things like spaghettios, ravioli (the chef boyardee stuff) and it is alright but I definately don't crave it as an adult and honestly I don't really have a huge affinity for veggies as a whole even though I was expected to eat what was served. So no I don't think that in general what we eat as a kid causes us to crave it.
 
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