Associations between the Ability to Detect a Bitter Taste, Dietary Behavior, and Growth A Preliminary Report

Information from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) has been used to assess the relationships between the 10-year-old child's response to a bitter taste test using PROP, features of early childhood feeding characteristics and 10-year-old height, weight, and body mass index. Children who were tasters (75% of sample) were slightly more likely to have been described as fussy eaters than the nontasters, and the supertasters were more likely to be in the lowest height decile at age 10.