London: Researchers have found a link between kids' tendency to opt for sweet-tasting foods and their growing bodies.
Lead study author Julie Mennella, a biopsychologist at Monell, said that biology predisposes humans to like and eat calorie-rich sweet foods and sodium-rich salty foods, asserting that this is especially evident in children, whose bodies are still growing, the Independent reported.
Mennella and her team tested 108 children aged between five and 10, as well as their mothers, for their preference of sweet and salty taste.
The respondents were asked to rate a number of sugar waters and jellies containing different concentrations of sucrose, as well as soups and crackers containing varying levels of salt.
After analyzing the data, the scientists found a correlation between children's taste preferences and their growth and development.
Kids preferring to consume sweet solutions over salty ones tended to be tall for their age, while children exhibiting a preference to salt tended to have a higher body fat percentage.
The small study has been published in the journal PLOS One
