In a very high percentage of children an innate refusal to try new foods is observed, a phenomenon called food neophobia or also the "omnivore paradox" , since despite the fact that humans need a varied diet and we are capable of adapting to any diet is observed this tendency to consider a threat many ingredients of the diet . For Professor David Benton, from the University of Wales Swansea, it is a survival mechanism inherited from our ancestors that unconsciously discourages humans at an early age from trying foods that could be toxic.
Neophobia has been shown to be greater in men than in women, runs in the family, and is minimal in babies who are weaned on solid foods . Experts say that explaining to children that a new food is "good for them" does not reduce neophobia, while it does reduce it when they are told that it "tastes good." As Benton published in the International Journal of Obesity , the best remedy for this phobia is not to insist too much because "neophobia also disappears by itself with age."
