Kids have a good reason to hate cauliflower and broccoli, study finds

Children will finally have a good excuse to refuse to manger cauliflower or broccoli. According to a study published on September 22 in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry and relayed by The Parisian, the disgust of certain children for these vegetables would be linked to an interaction between oral bacteria and a molecule present in these vegetables: methiine.

A disgust tolerated by adults

Contact of one with the other generates in particular dimethyl trisulfide (DMTS), a sulfur compound. Gold, “DMTS is acceptable in small doses, but when dominant it really smells like rotten sulfur”, explains Damian Franck, lead author of the study. This could therefore explain the disgust of some people for these foods, especially since the oral bacteria involved are present at varying levels from one individual to another.

In their study, Australian scientists from CSIRO (Federal Organization for Scientific and Industrial Research) performed various tests to determine if there was a link between the presence of these bacteria and disgust for these vegetables, especially when they are served raw. This link could only be established for children, although the chemical reaction continues to occur regardless of age. One of the hypotheses would therefore be that adults have ended up learning to tolerate this unpleasant taste. It remains for the children to explain all this to their parents …

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