“Yuk!” young David stated. “It’s got tomato in it! I hate tomatoes!” 
“I hate tomatoes too,” said his sister Adelle.
“But it’s good for you,” their Dad, Tony, told them. ” I eat tomatoes every day.”
“But Mum doesn’t eat tomatoes. She doesn’t like them either,” argued David.
Mum’s memories of being forced to eat tomatoes were vivid. She recalled sitting at the table long after everyone else was finished, gagging on every horrible bite.
She was not about to inflict the same experience on her own children. Although she made them try the dish and they grudgingly ate it (this time!), she was flexible with their dislike of tomatoes. She never forced them to eat something that they genuinely hated.
Some things are not just childhood fussiness: they are a genuine dislike that persists into adulthood. Learning to tell the difference is the tricky part.
Can we blame our genes because we hate tomatoes?
Research suggests that we all have a tendency to like starchy, sweet or fatty foods because of their calorie-rich nature. But when it comes to vegetables, we are much more selective, and some of that is due to genetics: we do inherit likes or dislikes from our parents.
While the research on inherited dietary preferences is still in its early days, scientists have so far uncovered a number of specific genes that govern certain tastes (a tolerance for hot spicy food is one example). Whether or not we hate tomatoes or other foods can be a genetic inheritance from one of our ancestors.
The research has also uncovered other genetic factors that govern our reaction to certain foods – ones that don’t directly involve taste. For example, the texture of a food is often what people find unappealing (or conversely, delightful) more than the taste.
Our senses all play a part in how we perceive certain foods. Think of the crisp crunch of a new- season apple or the visual appeal of a watermelon’s vibrant green stripes. If you enjoy apples and watermelon, think about whether you would like to eat a soft apple or a brown watermelon. Would you still want to eat them?
Taste is a complex affair and scientists admit they have a long way to go before they fully understand it. Marketing companies are eagerly awaiting the latest findings as they attempt to create products for a gene-specific market.
But Mum said …
Equally important in the development of taste as children is the home environment. Here is where we begin to build our tastes and habits for life as we are exposed to our parents’ tastes and habits. From the moment we first taste solid food, parents have a huge impact in modelling the food choices and habits that we carry into adulthood. 
Despite a genetic preference for some foods over others (remembering that fresh fruits and vegetables are the food group most strongly influenced by genetics), all is not lost if your child hates broccoli or beans: new tastes can be learned. Even if we hate tomatoes.
So how can parents win the war of the dinner plate?
Winning the war of the dinner plate
- With very young children, make a habit of offering fresh fruits and vegetables (appropriately prepared for their age, of course!) as regular snacks rather than sugary, starchy or fatty foods. Save those for an occasional treat.
- If your child doesn’t like a particular food right away, don’t assume that it’s no forever. Try again. Sometimes it takes time to develop a liking for certain foods.
- Make food fun – kids are much more likely to eat a funny face made out of salad vegetables than they are a tossed salad.
- If a particular way of cooking or serving a certain food fails, get creative and try it a different way. Think of it as an “Edison moment” (Thomas Edison tried over a thousand ways of making a light globe before he succeeded!).
- Avoid negative reactions when your child refuses healthy foods. Negative reactions from significant adults might reinforce the child’s perception of eating that food as a bad experience. Stay calm, upbeat, and encouraging and you might find that it’s a passing phase.
They watch you: Show them good habits!
Your kids are watching you. They are forming their future eating habits based on yours. Is that a worrying thought? It doesn’t have to be! Try these tips to model healthy food choices and attitudes:
- Model good attitudes to food yourself. Children watch every move parents make; it’s a scary thought, hey?! Intentionally and unintentionally, they are copying you in everything you do, because you are the one who is teaching them to “adult.”
- If you make a big deal out of a particular food because you dislike it, your kids are likely to also refuse to eat it, even without a genetically inherited dislike.
- If you hate a certain food, the best approach is to encourage them to try it while quietly containing your own dislike.
- Avoid giving labels to foods you dislike. Kids are quick to pick up on labels: Mum thinks it’s disgusting, so it must be, they reason. I’m not even going to try it. They believe it’s disgusting because you said so.
- Avoid expressing your own reaction to foods you dislike unless they ask you, in which case you can simply say that it’s not your favourite food or that you like other things better.
- Show them healthy eating habits. If you find yourself reaching for comfort foods when stressed, for example, your children are watching you deal with stress by consuming food. And chances are, it’s not carrot sticks you are eating!
Encourage yourself
Finally, don’t be hard on yourself if your children are not eating the way you think they should or if they hate tomatoes or other healthy foods. Parenting is hard work and there are plenty of critics who have no idea what it’s like to be in your shoes.
Give yourself a pat on the back for doing the best you can with the circumstances, environment and genetics you have. Only you know what you go through on a daily basis; no one else does. Keep encouraging your kids to make good food choices and be content that you are doing your best.
Sources:
http://www.supermarketguru.com/articles/are-food-preferences-inherited-or-learned.html