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.