Pediatric Food Preferences and Eating Behaviors - by Julie C Lumeng & Jennifer O Fisher (Paperback)

About the Book

"Pediatric Food Preferences and Eating Behaviors reviews scientific works that investigate why children eat the way they do and whether eating behaviors are modifiable. The book begins with an introduction and historical perspective, and then delves into the development of flavor preferences, the role of repeated exposure and other types of learning, the effects of modeling eating behavior, picky eating, food neophobia, and food selectivity. Other sections discuss appetite regulation, the role of reward pathways, genetic contributions to eating behaviors, environmental influences, cognitive aspects, the development of loss of control eating, and food cognitions and nutrition knowledge. Written by leading researchers in the field, each chapter presents basic concepts and definitions, methodological issues pertaining to measurement, and the current state of scientific knowledge as well as directions for future research."--Publisher's website.

Book Synopsis

Pediatric Food Preferences and Eating Behaviors reviews scientific works that investigate why children eat the way they do and whether eating behaviors are modifiable. The book begins with an introduction and historical perspective, and then delves into the development of flavor preferences, the role of repeated exposure and other types of learning, the effects of modeling eating behavior, picky eating, food neophobia, and food selectivity. Other sections discuss appetite regulation, the role of reward pathways, genetic contributions to eating behaviors, environmental influences, cognitive aspects, the development of loss of control eating, and food cognitions and nutrition knowledge.

Written by leading researchers in the field, each chapter presents basic concepts and definitions, methodological issues pertaining to measurement, and the current state of scientific knowledge as well as directions for future research.

About the Author

Dr. Julie C. Lumeng is a developmental and behavioral pediatrician and Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Public Health at the University of Michigan. She earned her MD (1997) and completed Pediatric training (2000) at the University of Michigan, completed a fellowship in Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics at Boston University (2003), and has been on the faculty at the University of Michigan since 2003. She spends most of her time on research examining developmental and behavioral predictors of children's eating behavior, particularly as they pertain to child obesity risk. She has been funded by the American Heart Association, National Institutes of Health, and the US Department of Agriculture. She Co-Chaired an NIH Workshop on Infant Obesity, and has served or currently serves on the Editorial Boards of Pediatrics and Pediatric Research. She is an Associate Editor of the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity. She serves as the Associate Director of the Momentum Center, a childhood obesity research center at the University of Michigan. Dr. Lumeng has authored or co-authored numerous scientific peer-reviewed manuscripts, as well as book chapters, review articles, and commentaries. She is a frequent invited speaker nationally on the topic of pediatric behavioral nutrition and childhood obesity, and her work has received frequent media attention in international outlets. She is an active member of the Obesity Society, American Academy of Pediatrics, Pediatric Academic Societies, and American Academy of Pediatrics.