Eating carrots during pregnancy makes babies happy, study finds

The food we eat during pregnancy impacts a baby's mood.

Researchers in Britain discovered that the foods pregnant people eat can affect the mood of their baby.

The team at Durham University analysed 4D ultrasounds to see the impact different foods had on babies' facial expressions.

They confirmed that "the fetus reacts to dietary flavours ingested by the mother".

Previous studies suggest that babies can taste and smell in the womb, but they're based on post-birth outcomes.

"Our study is the first to see these reactions prior to birth," the team explained.

Babies laughed and smiled when participants ate carrots.

However, they were 'reduced to tears' when the kale pill was ingested.

"4D ultrasound scans are a way of monitoring foetal reactions to understand how they respond to maternal health behaviours such as smoking, and their mental health including stress, depression and anxiety," the team added.

"This latest study could have important implications for understanding the earliest evidence for foetal abilities to sense and discriminate different flavours and smells from the foods ingested by their mothers."

The team believes their findings will teach them more about how human taste and smell receptors develop.

The study appears in the journal Psychological Science.

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