Sugar-eating children

1. What is the meaning of "acquiring a taste for sth"? When does she use this expression?

To acquire a taste for something means that you gradually like it. A very common idiom is “an acquired taste”, as in the expression “wine is an acquired taste”.

She uses the expression in minute 2.00.

2. Why do parents resort to processed food (e.g. formula milk) so early in the baby's life?

Because they feel a certain anxiety about what to give them, they feel really disempowered. By the time you can feed your children formula milk, you’ve lost your nerve, you have no confidence to feed them ordinary milk and think they might be allergic to it, etc. In sum, there’s a climate of anxiety that surrounds food and children.

3. How does she explain our liking of sweetness in evolutionary terms?

It helps us avoid poisonous food. We prefer something that’s sweet to something that’s not because there’s nothing sweet in nature that’s poisonous.

4. What kind of sweeteners can be found in baby's food?

Not sucrose, but rather sweet potato, carrots,... Some sorts of fruit can also be incredibly sweet (the problem she points out is that it’s sugar in its fruit form, but by the time it’s processed, it has the same effect).

5. What's the main problem with eating refined sugar?

It displaces healthier options that have vitamins and minerals you need.