If you study the fruit and vegetable preferences of four- and five-year-old children, what they like correlates with calorie density. They prefer bananas over berries and carrots over cucumbers. Isn’t that just a preference for sweetness? No, they also prefer potatoes over peaches and green beans over melon,92 just like monkeys prefer avocados over bananas.93 We appear to have an inborn drive to maximize calories per mouthful.
