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The Influence of Social-Affective Context on the Formation of Children's Food Preferences

Author(s): Leann Lipps Birch, Sheryl Itkin Zimmerman and Honey Hind
Source: Child Development, Vol. 51, No. 3 (Sep., 1980), pp. 856-861
Published by: Wiley on behalf of the Society for Research in Child Development
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The Influence of Social-affective Context on the
Formation of Children's Food Preferences
Leann
Lipps
Birch,
Sheryl
Itkin
Zimmerman,
and
Honey
Hind
University of
Illinois
BIRCH,
LEANN
LIPPS;
ZIMMERMAN,
SHERYL
ITKIN;
and
HIND,
HONEY. The
Influence of
Social-
affective Context on the Formation
of
Children's Food
Preferences.
CHILD
DEVELOPMENT, 1980,
51,
856-861. The effects of several social-affective
presentation
contexts on the formation of
preschool
children's food
preferences
were
investigated.
The children's
preferences
for a set
of snack foods were
initially
assessed and a neutral
food,
neither
highly preferred
nor
nonpre-
ferred,
was selected for each child. This snack food was then
presented
to the child in one
of four social-affective contexts:
(1)
as a
reward; (2)
noncontingently, paired
with adult atten-
tion; (3)
in a nonsocial
context; (4)
at snack time. 16 children
participated
in each condition.
Half of the children in each condition received a sweet snack
food,
half a nonsweet snack food.
Results indicated that
presenting
foods as rewards or
presenting
them
noncontingently paired
with adult attention
produced significant
increases in
preference,
and the effects
persisted
for
at least 6 weeks
following
termination of the
presentations.
In
contrast,
no consistent
changes
in
preference
were noted when the foods were
presented
in a nonsocial context or at snack
time. The results
suggest
that the social-affective context in which foods are
presented
is
extremely important
in the formation of
young
children's food
preferences.
Concern with current
high
levels of con-
sumption
of refined and
processed sugars
has
been reflected in the revised
Dietary
Goals
for
the United States
(U.S.
Senate
1977),
which
suggests
that
consumption
of
sugar
be reduced
by nearly
half. In
attempting
to isolate factors
that have contributed to these
high
levels of
sugar consumption,
a statement
by Young
(1961)
is
illuminating.
He indicates that the
hedonic values of foods are a function of ". ..
taste, aroma, texture,
temperature,
and
appear-
ance,
other
sensory properties,
and
upon
the
surroundings of
a
foodstuff (environmental
set-
ting)" (p.
158,
emphasis
added).
Despite Young's
statement that environ-
mental
setting
is an
important
factor contribut-
ing
to the formation of food
preferences,
there
has been
relatively
little
systematic investiga-
tion of the effects of environmental
setting
or
presentation
context on the formation of food
preferences.
Duncker
(1938)
investigated
the
effects of two different social contexts on
pre-
school children's food
preferences, including
the use of a
story
in which the hero showed a
strong preference
for a
bad-tasting
food over
one with a more
pleasant
taste. As a
result,
the
children's
preferences
showed a
temporary
shift to the food
preferred by
the
story's
hero.
In the second
context,
children were
exposed
to
peers
with different
preferences
after their
own
preferences
were determined. The chil-
dren then observed others
making
food
choices,
and
following
their observations were asked
about their food
preferences
in the
presence
of
the other children. When these
preferences
were
compared
with those obtained
prior
to
social
influence,
the
postinfluence preferences
showed an increased number of choices of the
peers' preferred
foods.
Age
differences were
noted in the effects of social
influence;
when
the child who was the
object
of influence was
younger
than the
others,
more
change
in
pref-
erence was noted than when the child was
older than the models. Duncker did not obtain
adequate
data on the children's
preferences
in
the absence of others to determine whether the
children's choices were a function of conform-
ity
or whether the
changed
choices reflected
Requests
for
reprints
should be sent to Leann
Lipps
Birch,
209 Child
Development
Labora-
tory, Department
of Human
Development
and
Family Ecology, University
of
Illinois, Urbana,
Illinois 61801. This research was
supported by
the Science and Education Administration of
the U.S.
Department
of
Agriculture
under
grant
no. 5901-0410-8-0077-0 from the
Competitive
Research Grants Office. We are indebted to the children and teachers of the Child
Develop-
ment
Laboratory
who made this
project possible.
Portions of this work were
presented
at the
biennial
meeting
of the
Society
for Research in Child
Development,
1979.
[Child Development,
1980
51, 856-861.
@
1980
by
the
Society
for Research in Child
Development, Inc.
0009-3920/80/5103-0027$01.001
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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Birch, Zimmerman,
and Hind 857
a shift in
preference.
In a
subsequent study,
Marinho
(1942)
noted that success in
modify-
ing
the children's
preferences
was a function
of how well established the initial
preference
was,
and that modification occurred more read-
ily
in
younger preschool
children,
who
pre-
sumably
had less well-established
preferences.
More
recently,
Birch
(1980b) investigated
the influence of
peer
models' food selections
and
eating
behaviors in the naturalistic set-
ting
of the lunchroom on
preschoolers' pref-
erences for
vegetables.
Based on assessed
pref-
erences,
a
"target'"
child who
preferred vege-
table A to
vegetable
B was seated at lunch with
three or four
peers
who
preferred vegetable
B
to A. As a
part
of the luncheon menu children
were
presented
with the two
vegetables
and
asked to choose one. On the first
day
of the
procedure
the
target
child chose
first,
while on
days
2, 3,
and 4 the
peers
made their selections
first.
Target
children showed a
significant
shift
from
choosing
their
preferred vegetable
on
day
1 to the
nonpreferred vegetables by day
4.
When
preferences
were reassessed in the ab-
sence of
peers
at intervals
up
to several weeks
following
the luncheon
procedures,
the chil-
dren still showed enhanced
preferences
for
their
initially nonpreferred
food.
Age
differ-
ences also
appeared
in the
data,
with
signifi-
cantly
more
younger
children
showing positive
preference
shifts than older children. Taken
together,
the results of these studies demon-
strate that one
aspect
of the environmental con-
text in which foods are
presented-the
food
choices and
eating
behaviors of others-influ-
ences
young
children's food
preferences.
More
extensive discussions of the effects of environ-
mental context and
experience
on the formation
of children's
preferences
have been
presented
by Beauchamp
and Maller
(1977)
and Birch
(1980a).
A casual examination of the environmental
contexts in which sweet foods are
presented
to
children in our culture reveals that the social-
affective context tends to be
positive;
sweet
foods are
frequently
used
by parents
as re-
wards, reinforcers,
pacifiers,
and
treats;
they
are
present
at children's
parties
and are an in-
tegral part
of most
holiday
celebrations
(e.g.,
Halloween, Christmas,
and
Easter).
Parents
and others who interact with
young
children
control the context in which sweet foods are
presented,
and
child-rearing practices
associ-
ated with the
presentation
of sweet foods
may
be
influencing
formation of the "sweet tooth."
The
purpose
of the research
reported
below
was to
investigate
the
impact
of several social-
affective
presentation
contexts on the formation
of
preschool
children's food
preferences.
A
procedure
for
directly assessing young
children's food
preferences developed
b Birch
(1979a)
has been shown to
yield
stable,
reli-
able data that
predict consumption successfully
in a self-selection
setting (Birch 1979b). This
assessment
procedure
will be
employed
to in-
vestigate
the effects of four different social-af-
fective contexts on children's food
preferences.
Children received one of a set of
eight
snack
foods in one of four contexts:
(1)
as a reward;
(2) noncontingently, paired
with adult
atten-
tion; (3)
in a nonsocial context;
(4)
at snack
time.
Method
Subjects
Participants
were 64 children from four
preschool
classrooms of the Child
Development
Laboratory, University
of Illinois. All of the
children in one classroom were
assigned
to the
same one of four
presentation
contexts
(reward,
noncontingent
attention, nonsocial,
or snack-
time
familiarity
control).
In two classrooms half
of the
subjects
were
males,
half
females,
while
in the other two classrooms nine
subjects
were
females and seven were males. Selection
proce-
dures for
participation
in the
preschool program
ensured that the four classrooms were well
matched on socioeconomic
variables,
with all
children
coming
from lower- to
upper-middle-
class families. The median
ages
of the children
in the
reward,
noncontingent
attention,
nonso-
cial,
and snack-time control
groups
were 4-4
(range
3-5 to
5-5),
4-0
(3-3
to
4-9),
4-2
(3-0
to
4-10),
and 4-3
(3-0
to
4-10),
respectively.
Snack Foods
The
eight
snack foods used included
dry-
roasted
peanuts,
raw carrot
slices,
animal crack-
ers,
seedless
raisins,
dried
apples,
Wheat
Thins,
vanilla
wafers,
and cheese
goldfish
crackers.
Preference-Assessment
Procedures
All children were seen
individually by
a
female adult
experimenter
who was familiar to
them. The child and the adult were seated at a
table in the Child
Development Laboratory
din-
ing
room. Pictures of three cartoon
faces,
vary-
ing
in
expression
and
designed
to be neutral
with
respect
to their
sex,
23 cm x 31
cm,
were
placed
in front of
the child. The
expression
on
one face was
designed
to
depict
someone who
had
just
eaten
something
that he or she liked
very much, while a second showed someone
who
appeared
to have
just
eaten
something
dis-
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858 Child
Development
liked. The third face had a neutral
expression.
The child and the
experimenter
discussed the
faces until the
meaning
of each
expression
was
clear to the child. The child was then asked to
"show
me the face
you
make when
you
eat
something
that tastes
good
[tastes bad,
tastes
just ok]."
If the child
responded inappropriate-
ly,
further
explanation
was
given
and the
ques-
tions
repeated.
Following
the
training procedure,
a
tray
with the
array
of snack foods on it was
placed
between the child and three faces.
Samples
of
the snack foods were
presented
in clear
plastic
9-ounce
cups.
The child was asked to taste one
of the snack
foods,
and
during
the
tasting
was
asked,
"How is it? Is it
good,
bad,
or
just
ok?"
(The
order of the three alternatives was coun-
terbalanced across the foods within
subjects.)
"Put it
by
the face
you
make when
something
tastes
[corresponding
to child's
response]."
Be-
fore
proceeding
to the next
item,
the child was
asked to name the food. If the child could not
do
so,
the
experimenter provided
the name.
This
procedure
was
repeated
for all
eight
foods.
After the child had
placed
the items in
one of the three
categories,
the
experimenter
focused the child's attention on the set of foods
placed
in the "like"
category.
The child was
asked to "tell me
[point
to]
the one
you
like to
eat the
very
best." As the child indicated an
item it was removed from the set and the
pro-
cedure
repeated
for the "neutral" and "dislike"
categories.
This
procedure yields
a
complete
rank order of
preference
for the items when the
orderings
within
categories
were combined.
An observer recorded the child's
responses,
groupings,
rank
order,
and
any
comments made
by
the child. Preferences were assessed at the
beginning
of the
study,
after 4 weeks of
pre-
sentations,
after 6 weeks
(immediately
follow-
ing
the end of the
presentations),
and at 6
weeks after the end of
presentations.
Food-Presentation Procedures
Each child received the same food
through-
out the course of the
presentation period.
The
food
presented
was selected based on results of
the initial
preference
assessment: for each child
a "neutral"
food,
neither
strongly
liked nor dis-
liked, was selected from the middle of the
child's
preference
order
(positions 4, 5, or 6)
in which items were ranked from 1 to 8. This
neutral food thus had the
potential
to either
increase or decrease in
preference
as a func-
tion of
being presented
to the child. Within
each
presentation condition, each child in a
classroom was
placed
in one of two
groups;
one
group
of children received a sweet food
(either
vanilla wafers or animal
crackers),
and the oth-
er
group
received a nonsweet food
(peanuts
or
goldfish
crackers).
In the
reward,
noncontin-
gent
attention,
and nonsocial conditions chil-
dren received foods in the classroom twice
per
day
for a
period
of 21
days, spanning
6 weeks
of the
4-day
weeks of the
preschool program.
Snack-time
procedures.-To
control for
the
possible
effects of differential
exposure
on
familiarity
and food
preference,
children re-
ceived
daily exposure
to seven foods that were
not
presented
in the classroom
during
snack
time. Children were seated at a table in the
dining
room with the other members of their
food
group.
The seven snack foods were
pre-
sented on a
tray
in small bowls in the center of
the table. The teacher seated with the children
told
them,
"Today
we have
[names
and
points
to seven snack
foods]
for snacks." The teacher
then served the children standard-sized
por-
tions of the snack foods. Children were allowed
additional
serving
of the
foods,
and observers
recorded each child's
consumption,
comments,
and other relevant information. The
experi-
menter involved in the four
preference
assess-
ments was naive with
respect
to the reward
food
being presented
to the child.
Reward condition.-Children received a
food reward
contingent upon performing
one
of a number of behaviors
falling
in one of four
categories.
These behavior
categories
will be
described below. Each
day
in the classroom
four teachers
participated
in the
research,
and
one
teacher was
responsible
for
presenting
re-
wards to the children in one of the four food
groups.
To
prevent confounding
the
presenta-
tion with the
personality
characteristics of
teachers,
a different teacher was
responsible
each
day
of the week for
presenting
the food
rewards to a
group.
Teachers were trained to
present
the re-
ward food to children
during free-play periods
contingent
on the
performance
of one of a set
of
"potentially
rewardable
behaviors,"
which
could be divided into four
categories: (1)
re-
sponding
to a verbal
request, (2) performing
an
activity adequately,
(3)
sustained attention
to an
activity,
and
(4) cooperative play.
Twice
each
day,
when the teacher saw a child in her
group perform
a behavior
falling
in one of the
four
categories,
she
approached
the child and,
with one
piece
of the reward food visible in her
hand, praised
the child for the
performance,
for
example, "Johnny, you
did a
good job help-
ing
clean
up
the
toys. Here, have a
peanut."
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Birch, Zimmerman,
and Hind
859
In
presenting
the reward food the teachers
praised
the child's actions while
simultaneously
presenting
the food. Teachers were instructed
to make the reward interactions as natural as
possible
in the context of
ongoing activity.
The actions of each teacher
during presen-
tations were recorded
by
an observer who also
recorded the child's
behavior,
the time of oc-
currence,
the teacher's verbal
statement,
the
child's
response
to the
teacher,
and other rele-
vant information. Children were told
they
could
eat the food if
they
wanted to but that
they
could not
give
it to another child. In 96% of the
cases,
the child ate the food
immediately
fol-
lowing
its
presentation.
Noncontingent
attention
condition.-Each
child was
approached
twice each
day during
free
play
and was
presented
with the snack food
by
a teacher who
said,
"Hi
[child's name].
Here,
have a
[snack
food
name]."
Presentation
was not
contingent
on the
performance
of
any
behavior
by
the child. The
scheduling
of
pre-
sentations was
randomly
determined. Children
were told
they
could eat the food but
they
could not
give
it to another child.
Ninety-five
percent
of the
time,
the food was eaten im-
mediately
after it was
presented.
Nonsocial condition.-In this condition
children received two
presentations per day
of
their snack food in a nonsocial context.
Upon
entering
the
preschool program,
each child was
assigned
a locker for
storing personal
items.
During
the course of each
day,
children
had
occasion to
approach
their lockers. At the be-
ginning
of this
phase
of the
study,
children
were told
they
would find a snack in a
desig-
nated
place
in their locker twice each
day
and
that
they
were free to eat it if
they
wanted
to,
but that
they
could not
give
it to another child.
To
prevent
the association of the food with so-
cial interaction or adult
attention,
foods were
placed
in the lockers while children were not
in the classroom. Teachers were instructed not
to associate themselves with the food
by
com-
menting
on it. If the child did not choose to eat
the
food,
it was removed from the locker
by
an
observer,
who recorded
consumption
of the
food,
the children's
reactions,
and comments re-
garding
the
procedure.
The foods were con-
sumed
by
children
following
86% of the
pre-
sentations.
Snack-Time
Familiarity
Control Condition
As in the
previous conditions, children
were
assigned
to one of four snack-food
groups.
The food
defining
the
group
to which the child
was
assigned occupied position 4, 5, or 6 in the
child's
preference
order. The same four foods
were
employed
in this condition. To assess the
effects of
repeated exposure
on
preference
for
an
initially
neutral
item,
children in this condi-
tion received all
eight
foods at snack time each
day
for 21
days, following
the same snack-
time
procedures
as
described in
the other three
presentation
conditions.
Results
The effects of the four
presentation
con-
texts on the children's
preferences
are
presented
in
figure
1. It is clear that in both the reward
and
noncontingent
attention conditions food
preference
was enhanced
by
the
presentation
procedures.
In
contrast,
no overall increase in
preference
was noted for the nonsocial or snack-
time
familiarity
control conditions.
Preliminary
examination of the data indicated no trends
for
age
or sex
differences;
the data were com-
bined for
analysis.
A 4
(presentation
context)
x 2
(sweet
vs.
nonsweet)
x 4
(assessment)
analysis
of variance with assessments as a re-
peated
factor was
performed
on the data. The
presentation
condition
X
assessment interac-
tion was
significant,
F(9,168)
-
2.46,
p
< .05.
Newman-Keuls tests revealed that the increase
in
preference
in the reward condition was
sig-
nificant from assessment 1 to assessment 2
(p
<
.05)
and from assessment 2 to assessment
3
(p
<
.05).
The decrease noted from assess-
ment 3 to assessment 4 for the reward condi-
tion was not
significant.
For the
noncontingent
attention
condition,
Newman-Keuls tests indi-
cated a
significant
increase in
preference
from
assessment
1
to assessment 3
(p
<
.05).
No
significant
increases in
preference
were revealed
by
Newman-Keuls tests for the nonsocial and
snack-time
familiarity
control
groups.
In contrast to the
initially
similar
prefer-
ences of the four
groups
for the
presented
item
on assessment
1,
Newman-Keuls tests indicated
that
the
groups
differed
significantly by
assess-
ment
3,
with the reward context
differing
from
the nonsocial and snack-time
familiarity
control
contexts
(p
<
.05).
As shown in
figure
1,
the
reward and
noncontingent
attention contexts
produced very
similar results on assessmert
4,
as did the nonsocial and snack-time
familiarity
control contexts. Newman-Keuls tests revealed
that the differences between the reward and
nonsocial and the reward and snack-time fa-
miliarity
control contexts were
significant (p
<
.05). The same
pattern
was true for the non-
contingent
attention context, which differed
significantly
from the nonsocial and snack-time
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860 Child
Development
.IY
0
cr-
0
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LU
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LU
cr,
a3_
z
z
0
F-
(f)
0
CL
*Reward n
=
16
2.0 O----O Noncontingent
Attention n= 16
-- --
Nonsocial n
=
16
-
--- Familiarity Control n=16
3.0
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6.0 I
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4Wks 2 Wks 6 Wks
ASSESSMENT
FIG.
1.-Effect
of
presentation
context on snack-food
preference
across successive assessments
familiarity
control context
(p
<
.05).
The main
effect of
type
of food
presented
(sweet
vs. non-
sweet)
was not
significant,
F(1,56)
= 1.24.
The main effect of
presentation
context was
significant,
F(3,56)
=
4.99,
p
< .01. The main
effect of assessments was also
significant.
Be-
cause the
assumption
of
homogeneity
of covari-
ance did not
appear
to be met
by
the
data,
a
procedure
for
adjusting
the
degrees
of freedom
was
adopted
(Box 1954).
The obtained value
of
, =
.65 reduced the
degrees
of freedom for
the
repeated
factor from
(3,168)
to
(2,109).
With this
correction,
the effect of assessments
was
significant
at the
p
< .01 level.
A
nonparametric analysis produced
a
pat-
tern of results consistent with those
presented
above. At the conclusion of the
presentation
period,
14 of 16
(87.5%)
of the children in the
reward condition showed increases in
prefer-
ence for the
presented
food from assessment 1
to assessment
3,
and 12 of 16 of the children in
the
noncontingent
attention condition increased
their
preference
for the
presented
food. In con-
trast,
in the nonsocial and the snack-time fa-
miliarity
control
conditions,
8 of 16 and 7 of
16
children,
respectively,
increased their
pref-
erence for the
presented
food. A
X2
test
per-
formed on these data was
significant, X2
(3)
=
7.84, p
< .05.
Discussion
The results have
clearly
demonstrated that
the social-affective context in which foods are
presented
influences the formation of food
pref-
erences and
provide
further evidence for the
effects of
learning
and
experience
on the for-
mation of children's food
preferences.
Present-
ing
a food as reward enhances
preference
for
that food. The effects on
preference
were not
transitory
and were still reflected in the
post-
assessment
preference
data obtained 6 weeks
after the conclusion of the reward and noncon-
tingent presentations.
The
procedure
was
very
effective in
increasing preference,
and the re-
sults
suggest
that to the extent that sweet foods
are
presented
in similar contexts at home or
school,
children's
preferences
for those
pre-
sented foods are
being
enhanced.
Evidence on the social-affective contexts
in which
parents
are
presenting
foods to chil-
dren was obtained in a
study by Eppright,
Fox,
Fryer,
Lamkin, Vivian,
and Fuller
(1972),
who interviewed
2,000
families with
preschool
children
living
in the North Central
region
of
the United States
regarding
their food habits
and nutritional
practices. Sixty-two percent
of
the mothers in the
sample
indicated that
they
used sweet foods as
rewards,
pacifiers,
or with-
held sweet foods as
punishment.
In the same
interview,
21%
of
the
sample
indicated
they
felt
their children consumed too
many
sweets and
were concerned that the
consumption
of sweets
was so
high.
The results of the
Eppright
et al.
(1972)
study
indicate that use of sweet foods
as rewards or
pacifiers
is a
pervasive practice
in our culture. Because the
present study
has
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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Birch, Zimmerman,
and Hind 861
shown that this
practice
increases
preference
for foods used in this
manner,
parents
and oth-
ers who interact with
young
children need to
be made aware of the effects of these
practices
and
urged
to use alternative
procedures
to con-
trol children's behavior. This is
particularly
im-
portant
in
light
of the national concern
regard-
ing
the level of
consumption
of sweet foods and
the
suggestion
that
consumption
should be
drastically
reduced
(U.S.
Senate
1977).
Results from the
noncontingent
attention
condition indicate that
preferences
are also en-
hanced when foods are
presented during
a
brief social interaction with a
friendly
adult.
Although
the initial effect obtained in this con-
dition was not as
large
as the one
resulting
from
presenting
foods as
rewards,
at 6 weeks
after the cessation of the
presentations
the two
treatments had
produced very
similar effects.
This result indicates that social-affective con-
texts
producing
enhanced
preferences
are not
limited
to
presenting
foods as
rewards,
but also
includes contexts in which foods are
presented
noncontingently
in
conjunction
with
positive
adult attention. In
contrast,
neither the non-
social nor snack-time
familiarity
control condi-
tions
produced significant
increases in
prefer-
ence from the initial assessment to
any
of the
subsequent
assessments.
The results of the
present study
are con-
sistent with
Young's (1961)
statement that the
laws of
learning apply
to affective
processes
and
preferences.
In this
case,
the results can be
interpreted
in the
following
manner: The
posi-
tive affective
processes
elicited
by
the reward
and
noncontingent
attention contexts became
associated with the foods
presented
in those
contexts.
Through
this
conditioning process,
the
foods
began
to elicit similar
positive
affective
processes,
which were reflected in enhanced
preference
for those foods.
The enhanced
preferences
noted in the
reward and
noncontingent
attention conditions
were noted for both sweet and nonsweet foods.
Although
nonsweet foods do not tend to be
used as rewards or in other
positive
contexts as
frequently
as sweet foods in our
culture,
it is
possible
to increase
preference
for these foods
as well. This result
suggests
that
positive
con-
texts could be used to increase
preference
for
foods that are not
initially highly preferred
but
are
nutritionally
more desirable.
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&
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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

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