Scientists who monitored the faces of fetuses with ultrasound were able to identify the psychological state of fetuses while they were in their mothers’ wombs eating for the first time, and found that the fetus smiles when it tastes carrots and frowns when turnip is food, according to the experiments of 100 pregnant women. Each of them swallowed a capsule containing 400 milligrams of carrot or cabbage powder.
The scientists said in a study, the results of which were published in the “Psychological Science” magazine, issued monthly by the American Association for Psychological Science, and Al-Arabiya.net reviewed a summary of it in the British newspaper “The Times” today, Thursday, that they tested the taste after mixing it with the smell, because The food components ingested by the mother pass into the bloodstream, and from there through the placenta to the amniotic fluid or “amniotic” that protects the fetus inside the “amniotic sac” in the pregnant woman’s womb, from which the unborn taste molecules of flavor when they inhale and swallow the fluid.
According to the results, those who tasted the pleasant flavor of carrots consistently showed more responses to a “laughing face”, unlike those who tasted bitter cabbage, where each of them appeared with a frown, so the study stated that the instinctive hatred of bitter taste “is logical from an evolutionary point of view, and this What helped our ancestors avoid toxins” because most of them taste and smell as repulsive.
“eating disorder”
However, researchers at the same time believe, “Food preferences are also shaped by our mothers’ diet before we are born,” said Dr. Beyza Ustun, a researcher in psychology at Durham University in England, and the leader of the scientific team prepared for the study, adding that mothers They may be able to prevent an “eating disorder” later by eating well during pregnancy.
Another professor, Nadja Reissland, head of the Fetal and Newborn Research Laboratory at the same university, has previously studied 4D scans to show the effect of smoking during pregnancy. and the different smells from the foods their mothers eat,” according to her expression.
With carrots the fetus rejoices, with cabbage upset
Also, Professor Jacqueline Blissett, Professor at Aston University in Birmingham, said: “We know from previous research that the nutrition the fetus receives in the womb is important in determining subsequent health, but this (study) is the first direct evidence that the fetus responds to flavors present. This indicates that pregnancy can be a great time to eat things that are difficult to get children to like to eat, the most important of which are raw green vegetables.