The health and development of the fetus is greatly influenced by the type of food the mother eats. In addition to this, the taste and expression of the fetus can vary depending on the food the mother eats.
A fetus about to give birth can taste it ㅣ Source: Getty Image Bank
On October 22 (local time), a joint research team between Britain and France including researchers from Durham University and Aston University in the UK published the International Journal of Psychological Science, 29-42 in the final stages of pregnancy. Between weeks the fetus announced that it can sense the taste and smell of the food its mother eats, and as evidence of that, it released a 4D stereoscopic ultrasound image showing different expressions depending on the food the mother was eating.
The researchers carried out the experiment on 100 pregnant women aged between 18 and 40 who lived in the North East of England between 32 and 36 weeks of pregnancy. The researchers divided pregnant women into three groups, one group ate bitter-tasting kale capsules and another sweet-tasting carrot capsules, while the other group ate no food. All pregnant women did not eat any food for an hour before the experiment.
According to previous research, the fetus’s taste buds, which enable the sense of taste, begin to develop from the 9th week of pregnancy, and the fetus can taste it by 14 weeks. In the case of smell, the nasal cavity of the fetus is connected to the neurons associated with smell from 24 weeks of pregnancy and they can smell. Therefore, considering the results of current studies, the fetus in the second half of pregnancy should be able to detect the taste of food because taste and smell are alive.
As a result of the study, there was a change in the expression of the fetus 20 minutes after the mother ate the food. The mouths of the fetuses in the group that ate the sweet carrot were raised and smiled, while the fetuses in the group that ate the kale showed brittle corners of their mouths or went after their lips to see a they didn’t like the bitter taste.
The researchers said, “We were able to confirm that the expression of the fetus changes depending on what kind of food the mother was eating.” “Specifically, the fetuses in the kale group had richer facial expressions at 36 weeks’ gestation than at 32 years. weeks. , there was no change in the facial expressions of the fetuses in the carrot eating group.”
“This study is the first to prove that fetuses can taste,” said lead researcher Beyza Ustun, who led the study. We confirmed the possibility of healthy control of eating choices and habits,” he added.
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