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It’s not a tantrum, it’s bacteria — why your child won’t eat broccoli

Vegetables like broccoli taste much worse for some children than it does for adults thanks to the different levels of oral microbes, scientists have found.

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New Delhi: If your child refuses to eat broccoli, it’s due to the invisible bacteria hiding in their mouth.

Vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and Brussels sprouts taste much worse for some children than it does for adults thanks to the different levels of oral microbes between adults and children, scientists have found.

According to a study published Wednesday in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, researchers report that enzymes from these vegetables and from bacteria in saliva can produce unpleasant, sulfurous odours in the mouth.

The level of these compounds is higher in children than their parents, which is why the vegetables taste worse for some children, causing them to dislike them more than their peers.

Brassica vegetables, which include plants in the cabbage and mustard family, contain a compound called S-methyl-L-cysteine sulfoxide. When these react with an enzyme in the plant’s tissues, they produce sulfurous odours. The same enzyme is also produced by bacteria in people’s mouths.

Researchers at Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia’s national science agency, who has authored the study, wanted to see if there were differences in sulfur odour production in the saliva of children and adults.

Using this data, they wanted to understand how mouth bacteria influence the preference of Brassica vegetables.

The researchers used gas chromatography-olfactometry-mass spectrometry to identify the main odorous compounds in raw and steamed cauliflower and broccoli. The method first separates chemical mixtures into their constituent gases and identifies the components.

The team then asked 98 child and parent pairs — with children between 6 and 8 years of age — to rate the key odorous compounds.

Dimethyl trisulfide, which smells rotten, was the least liked odor by children and adults. The team also mixed saliva samples with raw cauliflower powder and analysed the odorous compounds produced over time.

There were large differences in sulphur odour production between individuals. Children whose saliva produced high amounts of sulfur compounds disliked raw Brassica vegetables the most.

However, the same was not true for adults. Even those who have high levels of sulphur odour production in their mouths, may learn to tolerate the flavour over time.

These results provide a new potential explanation for why some children have a much stronger dislike for such vegetables.

(Edited by Paramita Ghosh)


Also read: India’s R value drops to 0.92, but Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru still over 1


 

 

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