Overview: In an observational study of Finnish and Estonian populations published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers found that #food neophobia (a fear of new foods) was associated with poor eating patterns and diet quality, both of which are associated with an increased risk of developing lifestyle diseases, including cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. The study, therefore, concluded that there is an association between food neophobia and increased risk of noncommunicable diseases.
Article Citation: Heikki V Sarin, Nele Taba, Krista Fischer, Tonu Esko, Noora Kanerva, Leena Moilanen, Juha Saltevo, Anni Joensuu, Katja Borodulin, Satu Männistö, Kati Kristiansson, Markus Perola, Food neophobia associates with poorer dietary quality, metabolic risk factors, and increased disease outcome risk in population-based cohorts in a metabolomics study, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqz100
Abstract Link: Here
Study Methodology: 7-year prospective, cross-sectional study (observational)
Human or Animal Participants: Human
Study Populations: Finnish and Estonian adults (from the FINRISK and DILGOM cohorts and the Estonian Biobank cohort, respectively), aged 25-74
Who Does This Research Impact: While the study was focused on ethnically Scandinavian adults consuming a Nordic diet or similar; this study can provide healthy eating guidance to adults of all ethnicities ages 18 and older.
How to Apply:
- First, know the difference between food neophobia and picky or fussy eating.“Food neophobia is generally regarded as the reluctance to eat, or the avoidance of, new foods. In contrast, ‘picky/fussy’ eaters are usually defined as children who consume an inadequate variety of foods through rejection of a substantial amount of foods that are familiar (as well as unfamiliar) to them.”
- When introducing new foods to your diet, make sure to repeatedly expose yourself to that particular food. We come to prefer what we eat regularly, which means that food preference is primarily an acquired taste. Therefore, most experts agree that repeated exposure to new foods helps make them part of a regular diet. It can take as many as 10 to 15 exposures for either children or adults to develop a food fondness, says Marcia Pelchat, Ph.D., a food expert at Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia.
- Introduce new, healthy foods at the beginning of meals, as this is when you are less likely to be picky or fear foods.
- Keep feared health foods, especially certain fruits and vegetables, handy in your kitchen.
- “Have the desired food — say, vegetables — around the house and present at every meal,” says Amy T. Galloway, Ph.D., professor of psychology at Appalachian State University in North Carolina. Having them readily available will help make it a more normal food in your diet.
- Eat a variety of foods, ideally from a young age, which is necessary to help improve overall diet quality. . This is because food neophobia starts at a young age and may be carried into adult eating patterns. Increasing sensory variety has been shown to increase fruit and vegetable intake, a common feared food category for food neophobics.
- Role model healthy eating behavior by trying many new foods for the children in your life. Elisa Zeid, a dietitian, tries new foods in front of her children and will “comment once (not ten times) on how great the food tastes” hoping that they will follow her actions.
- If you are a parent, initial exposures to new foods for your children can be “sneaked” into foods they already like. Missy Chase Lapine of TheSneakyChef.com stated that although sneaking healthy foods into kids’ meals is “not a substitute for teaching good nutrition,” it does, however, take pressure off the situation as “parents can relax in the knowledge that their kids are getting some desperately needed nutrition in every bite of the “sneaky” dish they’re serving.”
- Sometimes it pays to be picky, especially during the holidays. Look here and here for some Diet Detective tips on picky holiday eating.
- If you may think you have a serious case of food neophobia, where is is affecting the quality of your diet severely, you can seek support from a psychologist and dietitian that will treat food neophobic individuals with a cognitive behavioral approach.
Number of Related Studies on:
Google Scholar: 2,840 articles published since 2015 appeared for the search, “food neophobia adult nutrition”
PubMed: 448 articles appeared for the search, “food neophobia”; 134 articles appeared for the search, “food neophobia adult”
Related Studies:
- Food Neophobia In Young Adults: Genetic Architecture And Relation To Personality, Pleasantness And Use Frequency Of Foods, And Body Mass Index–a Twin Study.
- Food Neophobia Associates With Lower Dietary Quality And Higher Bmi In Finnish Adults.
- Relationships Between Food Neophobia And Food Intake And Preferences: Findings From A Sample Of New Zealand Adults.
Are Results Consistent With Other Related Studies? As noted in this food neophobia study, there are a limited number of studies on the association of the fear of trying new foods in adults (not just elderly or aging adults) with diet quality. However, the association between food neophobia and poor diet quality was also found in another study on Finnish adults published in 2015, which concluded that food neophobia was associated with a diet with lower nutritional quality, particularly with decreased consumption of vegetables. In a study of young adults, “food neophobia negatively correlated with pleasantness and use frequency of fruits and vegetables and of fish,” with researchers indicating that food neophobia should be considered a barrier to healthy diets during nutrition counseling. Additionally, in a study of New Zealand adults, associations between food neophobia and food intake/preference were established, suggesting that the fear of trying new foods is “an important barrier to dietary change and addressing diet-related health problems.”
Limitations of Study: The researchers list two possible limitations. First, the recorded anthropometric measurements of the Finnish, DILGOM cohort, were partially self-reported. Second, as with many studies, the study populations potentially may not “constitute a representative sample of the general adult population.”
References and Related Information:
- Development Of A Scale To Measure The Trait Of Food Neophobia In Humans. (PubMed)
- Food Neophobia Shows Heritable Variation In Humans. (PubMed)
- Food Neophobia And ‘picky/Fussy’ Eating In Children: A Review. (PubMed)
- Pathologically Pick (John’s Hopkins Magazine)
- Adult Picky Eaters With Symptoms Of Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder: Comparable Distress And Comorbidity But Different Eating Behaviors Compared To Those With Disordered Eating Symptoms (PubMed)
- Cognitive-behavioral Treatment Of Food Neophobia In Adults (Science Direct)
- Fussy Eater Or Food Neophobic? (The Telegraph)
- The Scientific Reason You’re A Picky Eater (Self)
- It’s Not Just Human Toddlers That Are Fussy Eaters (BBC)
- Playing With Food Can Make You Less Of A Picky Eater (Vice)
- No Greens Please – Adults Can Be Picky Eaters Too (The Sydney Morning Herald)
- For Picky Adults, Eating Is No Picnic (The Seattle Times)
- 5 Scientific Reasons You’re A Picky Eater (The Express Tribune)
- The Effects Of Food Neophobia And Food Neophilia On Diet And Metabolic Processing (Food And Nutrition Sciences)
- Taste-related Factors And Food Neophobia: Are They Associated With Nutritional Status And Teenagers’ Food Choices? (PubMed)
- An Examination Of Food Neophobia In Older Adults (Science Direct)
- Food Neophobia Is Related To Factors Associated With Functional Food Consumption In Older Adults (Science Direct)
- Taste-related Factors And Food Neophobia: Are They Associated With Nutritional Status And Teenagers’ Food Choices? (PubMed)