Taste of kale makes unborn babies grimace in womb

A new study has found that the bitter taste of kale makes even unborn babies grimace.

The leafy green vegetable may contain tons of vitamins that benefit the body's health but its strong earthy taste often turns people away.

As it turns out, that unlikeable taste is also present in foetuses.

Scientists from the University of Durham used 4D ultrasound scans to see if foetuses could react to different flavours and found that the unborn babies made a cry-like face when exposed to the bitterness of kale.

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Published in Psychological Journal, the researchers found that flavors from the mother's diet, compounded of taste and smell, were present in amniotic fluid from 32 to 36 weeks gestation.

"We report the first direct evidence of human fetal responsiveness to flavors transferred via maternal consumption of a single-dose capsule by measuring frame-by-frame fetal facial movements," the study reads.

Scientists asked mothers to refrain from eating anything before taking a 4D ultrasound scan of their babies.

Once a baseline was taken, one group ate a vegetable capsule of either carrot while the other ate a vegetable capsule of kale. Scientists then observed how foetuses facial expressions changed.

The carrot capsules led to laughter-face gestalt in foetuses.

Unborn babies who tasted carrot while in the womb expressed laughter-like facial expressions FETAP (Fetal Taste Preferences) Study/Fetal and Neonatal Research Lab/Durham University/PA

The kale capsules led to cry-face gestalt.

Unborn babies who tasted kale in the womb showed cry-like facial expressions FETAP (Fetal Taste Preferences) Study/Fetal and Neonatal Research Lab/Durham University/PA

So it's not just you who doesn't like the taste of kale- it's everyone.

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