Sweet tooth is not something a child is born with.
It is trained by the food habits of the family they grow up in, and parents who give young children sugary food repeatedly are programming their children’s brains to crave sweetness, Health Undersecretary Dr. Albert Domingo said Wednesday.
Domingo explained the neuroscience behind food cravings in an interview on DZRH News program The Situation Report on September 16, saying the mechanism is rooted in evolutionary biology but is being triggered by modern food environments in ways that are affecting public health.
The health official, who supervises the National Nutrition Council (NNC), said the training effect is what parents must understand: a child given sweet and sugary food at every meal will develop a strong sweet tooth not because of genetics but because of repeated exposure, the brain learns what the family feeds it.
He stressed that the problem is that the dopamine reward system that produces that association is still active in modern brains, so every time a child receives sweet food, the brain registers pleasure, and when that experience is repeated often enough, the brain begins to expect and demand it.
“‘Pag bata pa ‘tas paulit-ulit niyong binibigay ‘yan, mate-training ngayon ‘yung kanyang utak at magkakaroon siya ng tinatawag na sweet tooth,” Domingo said.
“Hindi po namamana by genetics ang sweet tooth, namamana po ‘yan by training or by ugali, by habit. Kung ano po ‘yung dietary habits ng isang pamilya,” he said.
Domingo said human beings evolved over thousands of years to associate sweetness with safety and bitterness with danger, a survival instinct that made sense when foraging for food in the wild: “Kapag matamis, safe; kapag mapakla, unsafe or lason ‘yun nung mga ninuno natin eh.”
“Ngayon naman hindi na naman tayo basta-basta kumukuha ng pagkain sa kung saan-saan. Ang problema, nandoon pa rin sa ating utak ‘yung tinatawag na dopamine reward system. Ibig sabihin, kapag tayo’y nakakuha ng matamis, ang saya ng feeling. Kaya nga sabi nila ‘yung chocolate ‘di ba, ang saya-saya ng feeling eh,” the health official said.
The health official said the solution is to introduce diverse flavors, including bitter and sour, to children from a very young age, before the sweet preference becomes entrenched, noting that his own mother still eats raw ampalaya straight off the chopping board without salt or sugar.
