Grown-ups who have been asked to recall what being force-fed was like report emotions such as anger, humiliation, and betrayal.

Modern children have so many forms of sweetness offered to them that, in my experience, a common reaction to a candy cane at Christmas is not joy, but mild resentment that the sugar rush is tainted by the minty flavor of toothpaste.

Given that neophobia is a deep-seated fear that the unfamiliar food will cause you harm, it can help if the child witnesses someone else eating the food and surviving—preferably even enjoying

Different meals, different times of day, and different locations can all make the same food or drink seem either desirable or not.

The third—which I’ll call “kid food”—says that children should be fed exactly what they like, no matter how sugary or fake.

When a dietician hears the first inklings of “change talk,” says Pearson, he should not hurry the person on to the practicalities of dieting or an exercise program, but try to capture the desire for change in such a way that the patient can hear what she has said. The dietician’s job is not to persuade, but to strengthen someone’s own desire for ch

images of different flavors humans build up are processed in the prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain that is most important not only for decision making and abstract thought, but also for memory.

Whatever our innate dispositions, our experience with food can override them.

The second—which we might call “nursery food”—says that children’s food should be separate from adult food, but that grown-ups should carefully select the foods with a view to what they believe is wholesome, rather than catering to a child’s tastes.