The importance of colour — even for ‘beige’ eaters

Does your child love foods like toast, crackers, and pasta, preferably with no sauce?

Are they eating a standard fussy eater ‘beige diet’?
Do you feel like plain is going to work for them and colours are probably going to be a no?

What’s interesting, is that colour is the most important sensory component in setting people’s expectations when it comes to food. We really do eat with our eyes because we decide more about how a food is going to taste by its colour than anything else.

Young children and colour

Babies are naturally drawn to bright colours. They take in the world around them with their eyes and use colours to distinguish shapes and separate objects.

They find primary colours like red, yellow, and blue easier to see, which is why most toys and other things aimed at small children are vibrant greens rather than pastel ones.

Before babies use words, they sort things by colour.

This is of course, useful to know from a food point of view. If colours are important then being exposed to lots of brightly coloured fruit and vegetables from an early age helps.

In fact, many children learn about colours by making associations with food. Red for apple, yellow for banana and well, orange!

Because young children are more drawn to bright colours than adults, repeatedly serving them and building those positive thoughts is a great way to support better eating.

Colour intensity

Studies have shown that we are naturally drawn to foods that have the brightest or most intense colours. We will pick the shiniest apple or the strawberry with the deepest red.

This makes sense as in nature the foods that are brightly coloured are usually the ones that are ripest and therefore sweetest and provide the most natural energy.

Intense colour also signifies more nutritious phytochemicals!