Why do kids find unhealthy food tastier than healthy food?
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Same reason adults do. It’s front loaded with salt and additives that are meant to make you crave more.
I don’t think it’s just kids, it’s adults as well. Usually unhealthy has more salt, sugar, fat and other bad stuff that tastes good.
Unhealthy food tends to be high in oils, fats and sugars
Your body naturally rewards you for eating them since the fats and oils are calorie dense, and sugars provide quick energy so you get rewarded for eating them, both of those are leftover results from when humans had less food available so the impact of getting food was much more important to the body, hence higher reward
Because unhealthy foods are engineered to taste good?
Our tastebuds are calibrated to make us seek flavors like salt and fat, which are found in reasonable amounts in meat, and sugar which is found in fruits and vegetables–again, in reasonable amounts. Unhealthy foods take *just* those flavors and concentrate them, so you’re eating flavor instead of food.
Unhealthy food are typically loaded with sugar and fats. Both very high calories that your body craves because it is still in stone age survival mode where getting as much food possible is considered good.
To add to the (completely correct) comments about those foods being engineered to taste good, humans evolved to crave fat, sugar and salt because for almost all of history, getting enough of those to grow up and have children was very difficult. People with that extra incentive to obtain and eat as much of those as possible were more likely to pass on their genes. Only in the last few generations have we had so much access to them that most people have to actively resist their instinct to eat so much it’s bad for them.
Processed foods tend to be more unhealthy, but are also often absoloutly predictable. Every chicken nugget from McDonalds has 1 of 4 shapes. Every one prepared correctly has the same taste and texture.
Kids (and many adults) don’t do great with surprises and like predictable things they can understand. Everyone gronks a McNugget.
To get kids to eat healthier it’s good to start with things you can make predictably. Bite sized veggies, on their own, with predictable levels of seasoning, are good. Little carrots, slices of cucumber, bite sized bits of healthy food where the child can see it, study it and understand it before they eat it is great.
Last note: Try hard to never force a child to eat something they don’t like. Sometimes a scent or texture just does not work and they won’t ‘like it if they try it’. Instead, try to go for positive reinforcement and celebrate when you find something they do like, especially if it’s a healthy choice.
Why do adults find unhealthy food tastier than healthy food?
Kids? Apparently you haven’t met 98% of American adults.
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