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CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Anything made by McDonald's tastes better, preschoolers said in a study that powerfully demonstrates how advertising can trick the taste buds of young children.

In comparing identical McDonald's foods in name-brand and plain wrappers, the unmarked foods always lost.

Even carrots, milk and apple juice tasted better to the kids when they were wrapped in the familiar packaging of the Golden Arches.

The study had youngsters sample identical McDonald's foods in name-brand and unmarked wrappers. The unmarked foods always lost the taste test.

"You see a McDonald's label and kids start salivating," said Diane Levin, a childhood development specialist who campaigns against advertising to kids. She had no role in the research.

Levin said it was "the first study I know of that has shown so simply and clearly what's going on with (marketing to) young children."

Study author Dr. Tom Robinson said the kids' perception of taste was "physically altered by the branding." The Stanford University researcher said it was remarkable how children so young were already so influenced by advertising.

The study involved 63 low-income children ages 3 to 5 from Head Start centers in San Mateo County, Calif. Robinson believes the results would be similar for children from wealthier families.

The research, appearing in August's Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, was funded by Stanford and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The study is likely to stir more debate over the movement to restrict ads to kids. It comes less than a month after 11 major food and drink companies, including McDonald's, announced new curbs on marketing to children under 12.

McDonald's says the only Happy Meals it will promote to young children will contain fruit and have fewer calories and less fat.

"This is an important subject and McDonald's has been actively addressing it for quite some time," said company spokesman Walt Riker. "We've always wanted to be part of the solution and we are providing solutions."

But Dr. Victor Strasburger, an author of an American Academy of Pediatrics policy urging limits on marketing to children, said the study shows too little is being done.

"It's an amazing study and it's very sad," Strasburger said.

"Advertisers have tried to do exactly what this study is talking about -- to brand younger and younger children, to instill in them an almost obsessional desire for a particular brand-name product," he said.

Just two of the 63 children studied said they'd never eaten at McDonald's, and about one-third ate there at least weekly. Most recognized the McDonald's logo but it was mentioned to those who didn't.

The study included three McDonald's menu items -- hamburgers, chicken nuggets and french fries -- and store-bought milk or juice and carrots. Children got two identical samples of each food on a tray, one in McDonald's wrappers or cups and the other in plain, unmarked packaging. The kids were asked whether they tasted the same or whether one was better. (Some children didn't taste all the foods.)

McDonald's-labeled samples were the clear favorites. French fries were the biggest winner; almost 77 percent said the labeled fries tasted best while only 13 percent preferred the others.

Fifty-four percent preferred McDonald's-wrapped carrots versus 23 percent who liked the plain-wrapped sample.

The only results not statistically clear-cut involved the hamburgers, with 29 kids choosing McDonald's-wrapped burgers and 22 choosing the unmarked ones.

Fewer than one-fourth of the children said both samples of all foods tasted the same.

Pradeep Chintagunta, a University of Chicago marketing professor, said a fairer comparison might have gauged kids' preferences for the McDonald's label versus another familiar brand, such as Mickey Mouse.

"I don't think you can necessarily hold this against" McDonald's, he said, since the goal of marketing is to build familiarity and sell products.

He noted that parents play a strong role in controlling food choices for children so young.

But Robinson argued that because young children are unaware of the persuasive intent of marketing, "it is an unfair playing field."

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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This is exactly why nobody buys the bargain brand cereal.

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Originally posted by testing123:
Damn you edited it all away.

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A study from Philadelphia's Monell Chemical Senses Center (MCSC) suggests that children can adopt their mothers' food preferences through the flavors in her breast milk and amniotic fluid. Study author Julie Mennella, Ph.D., a MCSC behavioral scientist, assigned 46 pregnant women to one of three groups. Women in the first group drank carrot juice during the last trimester of pregnancy and water during lactation; the second group did the opposite; and the third group drank only water throughout.

Later, Mennella observed the infants eating cereal prepared with carrot juice one day and water another. She found that those infants who were exposed to carrot flavoring ate an average of three times more carrot-flavored cereal than did infants whose mothers drank only water.

Mennella suggests that mother's milk may act as a medium for early flavor experiences, giving infants a taste of their culture even before birth. "Infants learn what foods are safe by flavor cues in the amniotic fluid and mother's milk," she said.

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It's sad that children in the hands of lazy or ignorant parents will suffer as a result of this, but such is life. It's not the government's job to play babysitter,

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Originally posted by testing123:
That sounds good but how can you expect parents to make the best decision for their children when they can't make it for themselves? Most of the time convienence and cost makes the deciding factor. To be honest most people don't know anything about proper nutrition.

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My point is that even if parents can't stop their children from going to McDonald's at a certain age, they can still put healthy food on the table to balance it out and turn off their kids' TVs and make them go outside. In my view, legislating problems like this away should always be the absolute last resort.

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Originally posted by testing123:
I'd agree with you but only until the child reached anywhere between 3rd and 5th grades. Then they stop listening to their parents and more on the media and friends.

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It's not entirely conditioned--if I'm not mistaken

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there is an evolutionary/biological basis for favoring salty, fatty, sweet, etc. foods.

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They may not be healthy in excess, but it's not unnatural to enjoy the taste of a bacon cheeseburger, for instance.

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Umm, i grew up vegetarian. and i was raised pretty healthy. So...

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If you grew up on strictly vegitarian, vegan, or even on a healthy diet that does not involve fast food you would not thinkg it tasted good. It might not taste horrible but you would most likely choose the food you are used to over it.

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But it's true, McDonalds tastes good. it's just horrible for you.