Breastfed babies get a taste for fruit and vegetables from their mother's milk

Breastfed babies are more likely to be healthy because they develop a taste for fruit and vegetables from their mother's milk.

Research shows breast milk is flavoured by the foods a woman eats.

Babies exposed to such a variety of tastes may be more adventurous eaters when weaned.

Researcher Helene Hausner said: 'It's not like if the mother eats apple pie the baby thinks "mmmm, apple pie", but it may be more accepting of the flavour of other foods.

'Breastfeeding may prepare the infant for flavour changes and new experiences when they start to eat solid foods.'

The Copenhagen University researchers gave nursing mothers capsules containing a variety of flavours and then tracked how long it took the compounds to appear in their breast milk.

While the flavour of banana barely lingered an hour after being eaten, the minty zing of menthol could be picked up for eight hours.

Levels of the other two flavours - liquorice and caraway spice - reached their peak after two hours.

The amount of flavour transferred varied from woman to woman but all had disappeared from the milk within eight hours, according to a report in the journal New Scientist.

Preliminary results from a second study by the Danish team suggest that breastfed infants might be more receptive to new flavours than bottle-fed ones.