Results Of ‘Junk Food For Babies’ Study Are Shocking

May 4, 2009 by tanya
Filed under: Baby Health, News, Weird

Over 100 baby foods have been investigated in a study called ‘Junk Food for Babies’. The shocking research showed that cheeseburgers and chocolate biscuits are healthier than some food marketed at babies.

It comes as the problem of child obesity is highlighted, with concerns of the poor diet choices parents are making for their young. Nutritionists believe that by feeding babies ‘junk baby food’ they are setting the path for the child to eat similar food which is unhealthy and high in calories later on in life.

Many of the baby foods studied were found to be high in saturated fat, salt and sugar. The worse offending foods which were high in sugar included:

Heinz farley’s original rusks, Heinz organic biscotti baby biscuits, Heinz organic gingerbread biscotti, Heinz farley’s reduced sugar rusks (30% less sugar than the original rusks), Cow & Gate baby balance animal friend biscuits.

Products high in saturated fats included:

Cow & Gate baby balance berry bear biscuits, Heinz toddler’s own mini cheese biscuits, Gow & gate baby balance animal friend biscuits, Cow & Gate baby balance bear biscuits

The Children’s Food Campaign lobby group disclosed that they found more sugar per gram in Heinz Farley’s Original Rusks than they did in McVities Dark Chocolate Digestives.

Heinz Toddler’s Own Mini Cheese Biscuits were found to contain more saturated fat per gram than within a quarter pound cheeseburger from McDonalds.

Many products, such as Cow & Gate Baby Balance Bear Biscuits were high in trans-fats, which have been linked with clogged arteries and cholesterol problems later in life.

Shockingly, less than half of the products tested were low in salt, sugar and saturated fats.

The worse offender were Heinz products, as less than 25 percent of the products tested met these standards. Many of the baby food manufacturers were also described as being secretive about their ingredients, with Cow & Gate not providing nutritional content of all their baby foods when requested.

‘Many foods marketed for babies and young children are often advertised as “healthy”.

said Christine Haigh, from the Children’s Food Campaign:

‘In reality, in terms of sugar and saturated fat content, some are worse than junk food. In particular, failing to correctly label products that contain dangerous trans fats is outrageous.’

Haigh has asked the Department of Health to regulate baby food better and request that companies reformulate the products which do not meet the standards set.

Nigel Dickie, Corporate affairs director for Heinz, said in reference to toddler’s own mini cheese biscuits: ‘It is quite misleading to compare our product with a McDonald’s quarter pounder with cheese which is consumed in a portion size of 194g, containing a total of 13g saturated fat per serving.’

Cow & Gate have announced that they will discontinue producing baby biscuits which contain trans-fat. They also states that over 90 percent of their baby range products contained no added sugar, and were sweetened from naturally occurring sugars from milk or fruit.