Babies learn to taste and smell while still in the womb, and as they gulp mouthfuls of amniotic fluid, they become accustomed to flavors of mom’s food. According to a 2007 study in Pediatrics, flavors like vanilla, carrot, garlic, anise and mint have been show to transmit into amniotic fluid and breast milk. When 6-month old babies are presented with the flavors they tested in the womb, they are much more likely to readily eat the strong flavors than babies who didn’t get primed to like garlic.

 Your genes – but not in the way you’d expect

 What your mom eats before she conceives has a lifelong impact on your genes – at least, that’s what a new study appears to show. Studying women in the Gambia who conceived in the rainy or dry seasons, researchers found that babies’ genes were different based on the nutrients available to their moms at different times of the year. Other studies have hinted that nutrition can change the epigenome – even 60 years after a famine, people born to mothers who were pregnant during lean times had altered tags on a gene that regulates human growth.