I love brocolli and I eat tons of it. It makes my skin nice and clear and smooth and it doesn't taste bitter in the slightest. I steam tons of it and it is beautiful and emerald green when I take it out of the steamer. I LOVE BROCOLLI AND NOBODY CAN STOP ME!!!

Pamela Evans, Phoenix, Arizona, USA

Pamela Evans, Phoenix, USA, Arizona

It's amazing what passes for "science" these days. Just totally amazing. I'd love to do a "scientific study" on scientists, to determine if they really know anything or if they just make it up as they go along. My wife and I love broc. We both ate it during her pregnancy of our son. But one of her sisters *doesn't* like broc. Maybe my son inherited his dislike of broc from his aunt? Gotta love experts. With the things they give us like HOV lanes and enforced wimpiness (no dodge ball, no second hand smoke, forced helmet laws, cellphone cancer, and on and on they all yammer) it's amazing that we don't all just curl up and die.

Harry, Chatsworth, USA

All I can say, is my mother loved beets---and I detest the nasty things.

Joseph Paulk, Tulsa, Oklahoma

all mums know that what you eat during pregnanycy is dictated by the baby, rather than the other way around. This may not be scientific, but most mums would agree.

Incidentally, I hate broccoli, but both my kids eat it happily.

I don´t believe any of this reaseach, it´s all of no value.

Ramona, Buenoas AIres, Argentina

That explains a lot. No wonder I like Guinness so much! LOL

mike obrien, seattle, usa, wa

"Both pregnancies I devoured cabbage, cucumbers, spinach, and cauliflower... EVERY DAY !"

I'm surprised your husband didn't leave you! haha

mike obrien, seattle , usa, wa

While this may be true for some women, it isn't true for everyone. My boys are a case in point. I had identical twins with my first pregnancy. I absolutely love fruits and vegetables. In fact, there is almost nothing I won't eat. I didn't change my eating habits during my pregnancy, but one of my twins will eat almost anything, like me. The other, is the pickiest eater there is, as is his younger brother. Obviously no study is absolute, but I'm curious to see if anyone has conducted a study and found the opposite to be true.

Marie, Erie, PA

broccoli gives my breast feeding baby bad gas

Dee, Hilton Head Island, SC

That is DUMB - both my kids love veggies and I Never touch them- Can we research more unuseful things that will help or hurt us becase we know now a days EVERYTHING kills us due to these ppl who overly research 'crap'

J, PG, USA

Surveys and studies today have little to no merit on any subject because all too often the author and or editor have some hangups or dysfunctional condition. Psychologists and other doctors can be the worst at this. Thank you.

Jim, Willis, Tx . USA

John of Johnfield - I think I love you! Thank you!

Miss T, T-town,

Don't they need to be cooked properly? Not green slurry?

Ewan Lamont, Edinburgh, UK

I have often thought that the same happens with spicy food and that Asian babies possibly develop a taste for curry before weaning. The breast is a modified sweat gland. After spicy food the odour can be detected in the diners sweat and it follows that the spicy flavours would also be secreted in breast milk.

John Priestman, Huddersfield, England

Scientific studies of this variety are based upon statitstical corroboration. It may not hold true for your individual case. Apologies for any disappointment, but the earth is not flat, nor does it orbit you.

B, Tampa, US/Florida

Oh yeah/? Well what about chocolate and beer? Both these are significantly bitter. And I've noticed both are very popular among the broccoli-phobes.
I believe the broccoli (etc) phobia is no more than childish resistance to anything that is recommended as 'good for you'.

Frank, Christchurch, NZ

Broccoli? Irk!

L. Mourao, Sao Paulo, Brazil

My mother loved green vegetables and ate them, I am sure, with regularity while pregnant with me and while nursing -- to this day --- over 50 years later, the only "vegetable" I tolerate is corn. Green vegetables make me gag. Interestingly, my ex wife at some, but not many veggies while pregnant with our daughter, who was bottle fed --- and our daughter is now a vegetarian -- go figure!

MJ, San Diego, USA

I ate very healthily during pregnancy. My 6mo FAVOURITE vege so far is BROCCOLI. He loves clasping the stalk and eating the top off. Even if it isn't proven, surely it makes sense for women to eat good food while pregnant.

natasha, seaton carew, uk

This is total crap.

My mother and my wifes mother both ate cabbage, broccoli and brussels sprouts while pregnant for us and we both HATE all 3 with a passion.

Steve F., Lak Charles, USA/LA

I believe this to be true. My wife at salads and veggies with the first in the womb and he lves them. The second she had a craven for fries and junk hile my daughter was iin the womb. Consequently, she lives on fries and chocolate.
Martin, Atlanta, Ga.

Martin Loden III, Atlanta,

That you've had a personal experience where the mother's favorite food does not correspond to the child's favorite food means little in response to the study.

The study showed that the babies were more responsive to the foods, not automatically in love with them.

Gary, Gainesville, FL US

veggies are not the only important part of diet...although i agree they are necessary for vitamin and mineral intake, meat and dairy also contain protein and iron that we obviously need...otherwise, why would we have incisors in our mouth?
some of the most unhealthy- looking people i have ever known were ppl who were vegetarian...they are skinny and pale and look they would break easily...i ate lots of dairy when i was pregnant, as well as meat and veggies..my son never had colic, earaches or anything as a baby and started sleeping thru the night before he was 2 months old...he has been the epitome of health his entire life...he is now 20...
my mother stayed sick 24/7 when she was pregnant, could not hold anything down...all 3 of her children had bad teeth and got sick many times in their lives...the one thing she could eat and keep down when she was pregnant with me was cabbage and i love cabbage in any form...i have always believed what this article says based on my own experience

beverly, baton rouge, La

Look, you morons, the plural of anecdote is not data. In other words your silly stories do not mean one thing for this study, which is likely the result of hundreds, if not thousands, of pregnancies involving hundreds, if not thousands, of mothers and babies. Get a clue before you go on and on about eating or not eating broccoli. Puhlease.

john, johnfield,

Rubbish!

I have twin boys with completely different tastes in food. The same applies to my twin sister and me. (All were breast fed as infants.)

Why didn't researchers look for mothers of twins for such a study so that other variables would me minimized?

By the way, who says that broccoli and brussel sprouts are "horrible” foods? (except maybe my twin sister!)

Alan, Memphis, TN/USA

My mum ate a heck of a lot of popcorn and nachos when she was having me

YET MY FAVOURITE FOOD IS SPINACH BROCCOLI AND BRAN!!

so much for science...

mellon, chicago, allon

I think this is so true. I also think it is connected to cravings during preganancy.When I was pregnant with my son I ate bowls and bowls of salsa and tomatoes. My son puts salsa on everything.
My daughter loves veggies and chinese food. I ate brocolli and rama noodles my entire pregnancy with her.
The stangest was my last baby. I do not like ice cream, but my entire pregnancy I craved hot fudge sundaes. This little girl drinks 2 gallons of milk a week and ice cream is her favorite food.

lisa, midland, tx

My experience was that I ate mostly vegetables due to craving
the Chinese food not the fried stuff but the vegetables. My
daughter has allergies to many foods and is a vegetarian.
She is allergic to shellfish,nuts, soy, etc;.

cindy, Gettysburg, USA

A healthy diet makes a healthy child.

veganman, Phoenix, AZ, USA

This has to have been a government grant funded research project dreamed up by two Englishmen and three or four pints of warm beer. And, they are probably the same two guys who dreamed up anthropogenic global warming to hand the elected class something new to tax.

Science is the sacred cow, the new religion, the path to power of this century and the evil people who would like to run all our lives, take all our money and spend on their toys, palatial work places and trips in jet helicopters. God help us.

Adrian Vance, Lakeport, , USA, California

Not the first time that Timesonline has puffed the health
benefits of broccoli et al, but it is the first article to end with a
contrarian acknowlegement of the vegetable's toxicity. The
damaging effects of broccoli and other Cruciferae as well as
peanuts, soy, and to a lesser extent apricots, peaches and strawberries , results from the poison acting as a goitrogen which damages the thyroid and disrupts the auto-immune system. Plants secrete this goitrogen in response to actual attacks and therefore organic pesticide free produce is the
most dangerous. As the toxin is only destroyed by thorough
cooking, microwaving, juicing or raw consumption is clearly
unsafe especially for children and anyone with a family
history of auto-immune problems.

R Plumb, Beccles, Suffolk

SEEING IS BELIEVING!! When my brother's ex wife was pregnant with their first daughter she ate a lot of spicy food. For her second pregnancy, she ate nothing but bland food. Now, their first daughter loves spicy food, and the second daughter has no tolerance for the heat. I have to say I believe them, and this broccoli study.

Brian, Levittown, New York, USA

"I say it's broccoli, and I say to Hell with it"

Buford Gooch, Atho, NV/USA

Total nonsense, we ate broccoi at dinner three times a week during my wife's pregnancy. Our daughter hates broccoli more than any other food that we feed her. She loves pears and plums...my wife probably didn't eat either throughout her pregnancy. She also loves carrots and sweet potatoes, foods which we rarely ate during my wifes pregnancy. I think our daughter just likes sweet things...just that simple. This was a silly experiment.

Brian, NY, NY

both pregnancies I devoured cabbage, cucumbers, spinach, and cauliflower.. EVERY DAY !..and neither of my children would ever eat it...and they still don't....and they are grown.

mary ann, Fredericksburg, tx

With so many pregnant mothers today almost subsisting on junk food and soft drinks there's no wonder why the kids grow up loving the same things. My children did not eat while watchimg t.v. If they wanted something to munch on I made popcorn for them or gave them popsickles made out of fruit juice. My three children are now in their 40's and 50's and have never been overweight. There was much less junk food in those days, people didn't have the money to blow on it therefore it wasn't in the house.

Ila Richardson, Medford, Oregon