Palate Determined in Womb?

From NPR (via Bittman):

Mennella says this had already been observed in rabbits, so she decided to test it in human babies — with carrots. Pregnant women were divided into three groups. One group was asked to drink carrot juice every day during their pregnancy, another during breastfeeding and a third to avoid carrots completely. Then when the children began to eat solid food, researchers fed them cereal made either with water, or carrot juice and videotaped their responses.

"And just like the European rabbit, the babies who had experienced carrot in amniotic fluid or mother's milk ate more of the carrot-flavored cereal," says Mennella. "And when we analyzed the video tapes they made less negative faces while eating it."

I'll have to ask my mom to be sure, but I'm think they were vegetarian when my mother was pregnant with my bother but not with me... and he loved veggies as a kid and I hated them. So there you go, Q.E.D. Pretty interesting, but I guess it won't be long before we have maternity classes that involve tasting menus.