“Childhood teaches us what to eat, how to eat, when to eat and what food should taste like. Children don’t have to learn to like sweet.”

—JULIE MENNELLA, a researcher at Monell Chemical Senses Center who is studying the sweet and salty taste preferences of children. In an experiment demonstrating the "bliss point" — the level of sweetness that makes food products most desirable — a first-grader tasted several puddings of various sweetness before choosing one that was 24% sucrose, twice the sweetness adults typically prefer. [via The New York Times]