Credit: Camille Troisi, Author provided.

The internet is filled with blogs and articles offering advice for parents who are trying to coax children into eating greens. Anyone with kids can relate to stories of mealtimes becoming a succession of attritional confrontations, where you cycle through ineffectual strategies before accepting the reality of the situation and plead with your toddler to simply take one bite of broccoli. In the end, it doesnt matter how much gravy you pour on fish, or cheese you melt on cauliflower fussy toddlers know what youre up to.

If we could converse with animals, they would also relate to these stories, as many species have a seemingly irrational dislike of anything unfamiliar and are more likely to eat new food after watching other individuals try it. Fussy eating can be an important way of avoiding toxic food, as witnessing other individuals eat new foods might tell them that its safe.

But fascinatingly, fussy eating may also indicate the presence of teaching in animals. Despite 30 years of research on the topic, there are still few examples of teaching in other species, making it difficult to understand how such behaviour might have evolved. My colleagues and I recently conducted research in the Atlantic forest of Brazil that provides new evidence that some animals may effectively teach their young what foods are safe to eat.

There are plenty of examples of fussy eating among animals. Young marmoset monkeys are slow to eat new food when alone, but are more willing to take a risk and try it if they are surrounded by family. Similarly, capuchins eat more unfamiliar food when group members also do so.

There are instances where food handling is linked to teaching in animals. The way in which meerkats show their young how to safely handle scorpions for eating is one well-known illustration. At first, young pups are given dead scorpions to familiarise them with the dangerous insect. As the meerkats grow up, adults remove the sting from live scorpions so that the pups can learn how to deal with the prey. Then intact animals are gradually introduced.

As a behaviour, this meets the three criteria scientists use to identify teaching in animals. An individual changes its behaviour in the presence of an observer, at a cost or no benefit to themselves, and this change leads to learning in another individual. In the case of the meerkats, although an escaped scorpion might represent a lost lunch, the exercise leads to learning in the young observer.

This kind of research has helped challenge the long-held assumption that teaching is a uniquely human practice. But the overall dearth of evidence means there is still debate.

In particular, its not always clear that instances where animals learn to eat new foods because of other individuals around them really meet the criteria for teaching. For example, there is limited evidence that adult golden lion tamarin monkeys, which are known to have a varied diet that includes insects and fruits, might teach their young about diet by sharing and transferring food.

If such food transfers do have a teaching function, we would expect them to meet the three criteria I mentioned before. The tamarins would transfer more unfamiliar food than familiar food because this would create the opportunity for learning.

On two recent visits to Brazil, we studied this behaviour by introducing familiar and unfamiliar foods to wild groups of tamarins. Initially, we introduced these foods when young tamarins were dependent on their family, enabling us to look at how adult tamarins transferred food within their family group.

Six months later, when the young tamarins were independent, we returned to find that their food choices were influenced by their parents. The tamarins did not, as we had expected, transfer more unfamiliar food than familiar food. But they did transfer more food they had grown accustomed to than the food they had never tried.

Despite not clearly demonstrating teaching because it doesnt meet all the criteria, this evidence appears to show that adult tamarins assess new food first before passing it on to others. This is still significant for juveniles, as they learn about what to include in their diet from the food that they receive from adults.

It is possible that food transfers in golden lion tamarins serve several functions simultaneously, depending on the identity of the individual receiving the food, and the food type being transferred. Further research could look at how tamarins transfer insects to see if there is a general pattern.

We also need to investigate whether adult tamarin gain any benefit, such as decreased harassment or increased social bonds, by transferring food to their young. Such information would help us come closer to understanding whether some animals really can be taught to overcome their fussy eating.

Camille Troisi, Postdoctoral Researcher in Behavioural Ecology, University College Cork

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Animals are picky eaters too scientists are trying to discover if parents teach them what's safe to eat - ZME Science

Tara Lennon/THE REVIEWA limited number of students have now moved back to campus for the Fall 2020 semester, and the duty once again falls on Dining Services to provide them with meals.

BY KELSEY WAGNERAssociate News Editor

In March of 2020, there were three dining halls operating on campus. Each was consistently bustling with activity, sometimes even fielding lines out the door as students crammed in to grab a bite to eat. Now, only one dining hall remains in operation and is usually mostly empty.

Even after campus shut down for the latter half of the Spring 2020 semester, Dining Services was obliged to provide meals to students who were living on campus and on the universitys dining plan. A limited number of students have now moved back to campus for the Fall 2020 semester, and the duty once again falls on Dining Services to provide them with meals.

The summer provided time for Dining Services to monitor and evaluate the status of coronavirus and to look at Centers for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines, university procedures and state policy. They also began utilizing Aramarks EverSafe program. Aramark is a company that partners with the university to provide food for its dining halls. According to Aramarks website, EverSafe provides guidelines for safe reopening and sustainable management of Aramark locations.

For this spring, we had to be very reactive, and for the fall we had an opportunity to be proactive, Amanda Steiner, Dining Services vice president of operations, said.

According to Steiner, this proactivity included engaging with students to ensure continuing satisfaction, adapting operations and safety procedures and ensuring employee cooperation and commitment to new policies and regulations.

Because the number of students living on-campus is small, only Pencader Dining Hall is currently in operation. Other on-campus dining options include the Trabant Student Center, the Nest in Morris Library, and the Provisions On Demand (POD) market on North Campus.

Tara Lennon/THE REVIEWThis group of students prepares to eat in Pencader Dining Hall.

Steiner said the university also expanded its partnership with food delivery services GrubHub and Good Uncle, with an option to add these services to a meal plan. The goal in this expansion is for students to not have to be physically present in the universitys dining areas. Even if students must enter the dining facilities in Trabant, GrubHubs mobile ordering service and the recently installed kiosks limit cashier contact and stop large crowds from forming as students wait for their food.

According to Steiner, the POD on North Campus is the only place where students collect their own items and pay with a cashier system.

Dining Services has also worked to monitor density and traffic in Pencader Dining Hall. The density tracker can be accessed through the Dining Services website. Steiner said that the density tracker is in real time to allow students to decide when and where they would like to eat.

Even though Pencader is currently the only dining hall in use, the density tracker was installed in Caesar Rodney and Russell dining halls as well.

Pencader Dining Hall has not seen full capacity so far this semester because of the low campus population, but Steiner sees it as a tool that could be used well into the future to help students make an educated decision without having to walk all the way across campus. She also hopes to gain a better understanding of dining hall traffic patterns to educate students on peak times.

It really gave us a better sense of helping the students be able to see where they could dine and what would be open and available, Stefanie Gilreath, the marketing manager for Dining Services, said. If we did have to restrict occupancy more, it is definitely a tool that we knew we would use heavily.

Some students currently living on campus have been monitoring the density tracker to determine when to eat.

Sophomore environmental science major Alexis Cervantes is immunocompromised, and therefore especially susceptible to coronavirus. She does not like to go to the dining hall when it is too crowded.

I was even scared to go at thirty percent, but I think when I went it was under 10, Cervantes said.

Sophomore public policy and criminal justice double-major Maggie Buckridge has also paid attention to the density tracker.

One thing I noticed is that the occupancy thats outside of the dining hall is definitely not accurate, Buckridge said.

Buckridge also pointed out other experiences in which she felt that the density tracker seemed inaccurate.

The other day it said two percent, and I went upstairs, Buckridge said. It was pretty empty but I dont think this was two percent, I mean there were definitely people there.

Another time, Buckridge said, the density tracker was at zero percent but the dining hall was not empty of students.

Since the spring, self-service has been eliminated, and there has also been a complete division between dine-in and take-out portions of Pencader. According to Steiner, Dining Services made these changes to remove the risk of cross-contamination of containers and to better control occupancy.

Buckridge sees the separation between dine-in and take-out as one of the most significant changes in on-campus dining since the spring.

I think the difference between dining in and dining out is kind of big, but regardless of if Im doing dine-in or take-out, it has all been tasting pretty good, Buckridge said.

Despite being content with the options available to her, Buckridge said that there are limited take-out options available to students who have dietary restrictions.

I imagine like if youre vegan or vegetarian, or even if youre just a picky eater or if you have allergies, its probably pretty hard to do take-out just because there are limited options, Buckridge said. There always is a vegan option, but it might be like one or two things so like hummus, for example, and [if] youre vegan thats kind of it.

Buckridge also pointed out that there are many more options that are available to students when they are dining in.

Although she has only visited the dining hall a few times since arriving on campus, Cervantes also feels that the options are limited as someone who follows a vegan diet. Instead, she looks to Main Street for alternative dining options.

They just dont have a lot of options, and then coming from [Caesar Rodney Dining Hall], like, just a whole different world up here because I used to have that entire vegan station, Cervantes said. Now, I just feel like my options are super limited.

Unlike Buckridge, Cervantes prefers the options offered by the take-out section of the dining hall.

The vegan options that I would have are only in the to-go section, so I dont mind taking it to-go since I am immunocompromised, Cervantes said.

Because Dining Services is providing food during a pandemic, they must ensure that they are doing so safely. Mike Diener, the safety director for Dining Services, was hired for this exact purpose.

Diener called hand sanitation a critical procedure for the safe functioning of a food service operation. He also said that Dining Services has increased the number of hand-washing and sanitizing stations available to students and has put up signage to promote hand hygiene.

According to Diener, Dining Services employees also had to undergo training in hand hygiene procedures and are observed to ensure they are washing their hands, as well as wearing gloves and masks. All employees were tested for coronavirus before returning to work and also undergo daily health screenings.

Gilreath also ensured that Dining Services employees are taking precautions against coronavirus.

Everyones been very committed to doing what we need to do to stay safe, from our management teams through our employees, Gilreath said. Everyones been very cooperative and have been taking all the precautions that we can.

Diener said that dining services also reviewed its safety measures with resident assistants, who could then communicate the guidelines with their residents.

Social distancing markers have been placed six feet apart throughout campus, including in Pencader Dining Hall. Diener said that Dining Services works to ensure social distancing by telling students to wait for their food in the dining room, rather than near the line.

Tara Lennon/THE REVIEWDining Services verified that tables are eight feet apart and sanitized when students leave.

Even though masks are required elsewhere on campus, students cannot eat with their masks on. To mitigate this problem, Diener said, tables only allow for six students to sit at a time and are spread eight feet apart. After students leave, tables and chairs are immediately disinfected.

Buckridge said that the students typically follow social distancing guidelines when eating in the dining hall.

Youre pretty much six feet apart from people when youre like walking around getting your food, which feels safe, Buckridge said.

When it comes to seating, however, Buckridge is concerned that the groups of students joining together for meals may be too large.

I mean, I dont feel super hopeful with people being able to eat in like groups of like eight people in the dining hall, Buckridge said.

Buckridge also finds inconsistencies between residence hall policies and dining hall policies. While she cannot go into a residence hall that is not her own, she can still eat with people who live there, potentially spreading coronavirus across residence halls through interactions in the dining hall.

It sort of makes the Res Life restrictions feel a little obsolete, Buckridge said. How meaningful and impactful are those gonna be when you can eat inside with a group of eight people without your mask on, at one table, socially distanced from other tables, but not from the people youre sitting with?

Both Diener and Gilreath believe that awareness is key to enforcing policies aimed to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Its really [about] educating and communication and making sure that those materials and guidelines are out there, so students know what the expectations are when theyre dining on campus, Gilreath said.

Both Buckridge and Cervantes believe that there is not enough signage conveying dining hall expectations. Cervantes said that even though there are arrows, there is still some confusion.

I just dont want to accidentally go somewhere that Im not supposed to or grab something Im not supposed to, but theyre not really telling us what to do, Cervantes said.

Buckridge is most concerned about students spreading coronavirus by sitting with people whom they are not already in close contact with.

Theres like no signage; theres no encouragement or expectation, like it doesnt say, Oh, eat with people you live with or you know, only eat with people in your building, or something, Buckridge said. Theres none of that. You can eat with whoever.

For those looking for more information regarding safety guidelines for returning students, including a list of safe dining rules, please refer to the universitys published campus guidelines here.

Correction: A previous version of this article, published Sept. 10 at 12 noon, introduced and referred to the safety director for Dining Services as Mike Diner or Diner throughout the piece. This was a misspelling. His last name is spelled Diener. This article was updated Sept. 11 at 12 noon to correct this factual error.

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Safe to dine?: Dining Services navigates on-campus meals during a pandemic The Review - University of Delaware Review

Nutrition can be a hotly contested topic, but health experts agree that eating well is actually simple. No matter which way you slice and dice the information, the conclusion is you should mostly eat a whole, minimally processed diet rich in vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, legumes, nuts, seeds, and water. If you can do that, you cant go wrong, says preventive medicine specialist David L. Katz, MD, coauthor, along with Mark Bittman, of How to Eat: All Your Food and Diet Questions Answered. Dr. Katz is also the founding director of Yale Universitys Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center in Derby, Connecticut.

In essence, says Katz, there shouldnt be a need for another nutrition book (like his!), and yet nutrition confusion remains. Here, we cut through some of the bigger myths out there to help you eat better starting today.

Carbohydrates include highly processed foods, like crackers, chips, bread, and breakfast cereal. But the category also includes berries, spinach, beans, lentils, and plant-based foods that contain fiber and a variety of health-promoting nutrients, says Katz.

Consuming high-fiber, unrefined carbohydrates whole grains, legumes, fruit, and vegetables is linked to a reduced risk of chronic disease, says Abbey Sharp, a registered dietitian in Toronto and the author of The Mindful Glow Cookbook. A series of meta-analyses and reviews published in January 2019 in The Lancet backs up this notion. Stop fearing all carbs, Sharp says.

Theres nothing special about breakfast, says Katz. The first food you eat during the day is technically breakfast, but it doesnt need to be consumed early or include certain types of foods. If youre not hungry in the morning, you can skip this meal and move right into lunch.

Snacking takes the edge off your hunger and can work for or against you depending on what youre eating. Katz recommends apples, walnuts, bananas, carrots, hummus, and bean dip as nutritious snacks. Skip highly processed vending machine food that will spike (and then crash) your blood sugar.

RELATED: 8 Healthy High-Protein Snacks to Power You Through the Day

Sometimes, frozen produce may be healthier than fresh, says Sharp. Frozen produce is often flash frozen at the peak of ripeness, while some fresh produce is picked before its ripe. The nutrition in fresh produce may degrade as its shipped to stores, according to a study published in June 2017 in the Journal of Food Composition and Analysis.

Eating locally produced food is a worthy aim. However, the most important goal is to eat more fruits and vegetables even if they were grown far away, says Katz.

If you can afford organic, eat organic, advises Katz, since organic produce contains fewer potentially harmful chemical residues, according to a review published in September 2014 in The British Journal of Nutrition. But if its out of your budget, buy conventional and rinse it off before eating to reduce the amount of pesticide residue. The most important thing is eating more fruits and vegetables.

RELATED: Why Are Healthy Eating Habits Important?

The beauty of having organs, such as lungs, skin, kidneys, and a liver, is that your body relies on them to detox your body naturally, says Sharp: You dont need to buy an expensive detox program to improve your health.

Gluten is a protein found in wheat, rye, and barley, according to the Celiac Disease Foundation. About 90 percent of people are gluten tolerant and consume these foods just fine, Katz writes. Whats more, research published in May 2015 in the journal Digestion shows that among people who believed they were sensitive to gluten, 86 percent could eat it just fine. Unless you have celiac disease or a gluten sensitivity, you can continue to cook foods with gluten, such as whole grains.

Skip fat and youre skipping out on the most satiating nutrient. Plus, low-fat foods often backfire: These alternatives are often higher in sodium and sugar to make up for the lack of mouthfeel [from removing the fat], so theyre not necessarily healthier, says Sharp.

RELATED: Good vs. Bad Fats for the Heart

Turning produce into juice strips away the fiber, making juice a more concentrated source of sugar. The end result is a higher glycemic load, which means your blood sugar will surge after drinking the juice, according to How to Eat. Better to consume whole fruits and vegetables.

The humble white potato gets the short stick but shouldnt. People demonize potatoes over sweet potatoes, but the nutrient composition is quite similar, says Sharp. Sweet potatoes have more vitamin A and an additional gram of fiber, but white potatoes have more potassium (essential for helping regulate blood sugar), she says. Nutrition info from the U.S. Department of Agriculture on sweet and white potatoesbacks up these details. The verdict: Include a combination of sweet and white taters in your diet.

This hinges on the idea that beans contain lectins, which are supposedly poisonous it's how the fad diet called the lectin-free diet came about. Lectins are most abundant in raw, dried beans (canned beans tend to be low in lectins). But because you cook beans before you eat them, that process reduces some of the lectin content, according to theHarvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Also, beans are one of the healthiest foods you can eat, says Katz. Beans are a mainstay of all five Blue Zone diets. Every study that has looked at beans has found that a higher intake is connected to better health outcomes, in areas like weight, heart disease, and dementia, he says.

RELATED: 6 Expert Tips for Switching to a Plant-Based Diet

Most people wouldnt actually derive a benefit from a nightly glass of vino. If you enjoy wine, can stick to moderate drinking recommendations, maintain a healthy lifestyle, and have a family history of cardiovascular disease, you may benefit, says Katz. Otherwise, theres no reason to start drinking in the hope of protecting your heart.

Its not as dramatic as it sounds. Eggs have been unnecessarily demonized because they contain dietary cholesterol, says Sharp. However, more recent research shows that saturated and trans fats in your diet stimulate the liver to make cholesterol, says Harvard Health Publishing. And so, the bigger concern when it comes to unhealthy levels of cholesterol in your body is saturated-fat-rich foods, not necessarily foods higher in cholesterol. And eggs are a food thats lower in sat fat. TheAmerican Heart Association recommends sticking with about one egg per day. (If you have a couple of eggs twice a week, youre still under an appropriate limit.)

They may be rich in fat and calories, but they also contain a good amount of protein, fiber, vitamins, and minerals. Research published in July 2017 in the European Journal of Nutrition concluded that nut eaters have less of a risk of gaining weight and becoming overweight or obese compared with those who avoid the food. Of course, overeating anything, including nuts, can lead to weight gain. Stick to a handful of nuts a day, or about 1 ounce. Opt for something like plain almonds over honey-roasted almonds, says Katz.

RELATED: The Best Nuts for Your Heart

Every diet wants its followers to believe it is the tops, but there is no such thing as a perfect diet, says Sharp. The best diet is the one that promotes variety in nutrients, adds enjoyment, and can easily be sustained without a sense of deprivation.

Folks looking to lose weight have heard this rallying cry, but diet quality matters when it comes to your health and ability to lose weight, says Sharp. A study published in February 2018 in JAMA shows that as long as youre eating a high-quality diet, you can lose weight temporarily on a low-fat or low-carb diet.

In the worlds healthiest eating patterns (such as the Mediterranean and DASH diets), meat is consumed in small amounts or not at all, according to How to Eat. Bottom line: Meat is an optional part of your diet; though for the health of the planet, you should probably eat less of it, Katz writes.

Diets that are higher in fat tend to be just as effective at encouraging weight loss as diets that are low in fat, says Sharp. For instance: A study published in November 2017in the journal Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolismfound that of the 41 overweight dieters who participated, those assigned to 12 weeks of a low-carb, high-fat diet saw bigger reductions in weight, triglycerides, insulin, and glucose levels compared with those who followed a low-fat, high-carb control diet.

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20 Food and Nutrition Myths You Shouldn't Believe - Everyday Health

For years, F-Factor which promises customers that they can "eat carbs, dine out, drink alcohol, work out less" and stay slim on founder Tanya Zuckerbrot's fiber-heavy regime has been the in-the-know diet for well-heeled Upper East Siders and celebrities, including Megyn Kelly, Olivia Culpo, and Katie Couric.

Zuckerbrot charges some clients up to$15,000 for a startup packageand serves up diet tips and scenes from her jet-setting lifestyle to her 119,000 Instagram followers. She seemed to have it all: books, a line of powders and fiber bars, a $22 million Park Avenue apartment, and a handsome second husband, the corporate real-estate investor Anthony Westreich.

Now former F-Factor employees are coming forward to Insider with allegations about the company's work environment, including claims that employees' eating habits were policed by Zuckerbrot in a manner that was diametrically opposed to the carefree image F-Factor projects to its users. Some employees also said Zuckerbrot engaged in office behavior they found inappropriate and told sexually explicit jokes that made them uncomfortable.

"These allegations [are] all either false or misleading,"Zuckerbrot said in a statement to Insider.

Read more:
Past employees at F-Factor say the office culture was toxic and eating was policed - Business Insider - Business Insider