We parents insist that children eat a lot of vegetables, and it is the right thing to do, but when it comes time for cauliflower or broccoli … tragedy is chewed. There are many children who when tasting these vegetables their disgusted face is pronounced too much. Now, a new scientific study could have solved the puzzle and perhaps the answer lies in the type of bacteria that children have in their mouth.
For a child to love vegetables, that first, is rare. Little by little, children can learn to overcome this rejection of vegetables, so we can offer them alternatives such as cutting the vegetables into sticks and dipping them in some type of sauce or hummus. Little by little they will overcome their aversion to those flavors. This is mainly due to the fact that children prefer sweet flavors because they give the impression of greater energy , since bitter ones give the sensation of toxicity.
In our mouth, as in the mouth of any living being, there are different bacteria. This group of enzymes matches the bacteria that are in food, for example, broccoli. This causes a natural reaction that causes the bad taste of the vegetables that we sometimes eat.
A somewhat complex process that we will try to briefly summarize in the following paragraphs, apart from explaining what was demonstrated in that scientific study. A very recent study that was published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemestry.
Kids don’t hate broccoli, it’s bacteria
We are going to explain the process by which scientists have come to this very concrete conclusion. It turns out that billions of bacteria already live in our mouths, which in turn coincide with the bacteria in the food we eat every day. Specifically, there is a type of vegetables called Brassica vegetables, where cabbage, broccoli, cabbages and cauliflower come in.
What happens is that, when we chew broccoli, the enzymes in our mouth get to work and begin to break down a compound called S-methyl-L-cysteine sulfoxide (SMCSO) that is found in cruciferous vegetables. Well, this compound is transformed into an odor, so the level of cysteine activity is what tells us how much compound is decomposed. The decomposition itself not only causes odor in our mouth, but obviously affects the taste .
Returning to children, the greater the decomposition, the greater the rejection of children for those vegetables among which is broccoli. Also, during the recent study, children appeared to be more sensitive to a compound known as dimethyl trisulfide (DMTS) which is like rotten sulfur. This same odor is both a byproduct of SMCSO decomposition and also an aroma that is released in the decomposition of meat.
The saliva of each participant in the test generated different amounts of stinky and unpleasant aromas. During the investigation, cauliflower was the one that generated the most foul odors, but broccoli was not far behind.
