baby food worse than junk food?

carang

carang

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just saw this:

LONDON, May 4 (Reuters) - Some baby foods contain as much sugar and saturated fats as chocolate biscuits or cheeseburgers, a British food pressure group said on Monday.

Publishing results of a survey of more than 100 foods for babies and toddlers, the Children's Food Campaign said Farley's rusks were 29 percent sugar and some Cow & Gate toddler biscuits contained trans fats, which have been linked to heart disease.

"The results of this survey are staggering," said Christine Haigh, spokeswoman for the CFC.

"Many foods marketed for babies and young children are advertised as healthy. In reality, in terms of sugar and saturated fat content, some are worse than junk food."

The CFC survey found that 100g of Farley's Original Rusks, made by Heinz, contained 29g of sugar, more than that contained in the same weight of some chocolate digestive biscuits.

Heinz Toddler's Own Mini Cheese Biscuits contained 7.3g of saturated fat per 100g, more than the 6.7g in an equal weight piece of a McDonald's quarter pounder burger with cheese.

Cow & Gate, which makes a range of baby and toddler formula milks and foods, responded to the survey by halting production of its baby biscuits.

"In discussion with the Food Standards Agency we have already taken the decision to discontinue our baby biscuits, when we became aware of the presence of hydrogenated fat, which contains a very small amount of trans fats," a spokeswoman said.

Heinz defended its Farley's rusks as an "ideal weaning food for babies from around four months".

"Farley's Rusks have been enjoyed by generations of babies, and some adults too, for 120 years," it said in a statement. "Enriched with vitamins and minerals, the unique Farley's Rusk recipe has remained virtually unchanged."

The CFC, part of food and farming campaign group Sustain, said it examined the nutritional content of 107 baby and toddler foods available in UK supermarkets in March.

It found only half the products were low in saturated fat, salt and sugar, as defined in Britain's Food Standards Agency guidance. (Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
 
Firstly, it depends on the kinds of fat. Saturated fat is gross for anyone, but babies shouldn't be on a 'low fat' diet - they needs lots of fats, as long as they are the right ones.
All it takes is for people to read the ingredients and the other nutritional info on the label.
It doesn't surprise me that this kinf od baby food is made, and sadly it doesn't surprise me that people buy it.
 
You'd be surprised, Heinz juice (Both Apple and Grape) for babies tastes like sugar syrup, I bought a pack long ago and its still lying in my kitchen cabinet.
 
i bought the diluted version of Heinz Apple juice and it really doesn't taste like anything at all...i diluted that again just to be sure, but it's so tasteless my daughter refuses to drink it....i prefer making my own, but on occasions when you're just not home yet, the convenience is unbeatable.
 
As i really cannot trust the food from China. so I would prefer to feed my boy ( before 1 yr old) with the bottled baby food. like Heinz mum's recipe..etc
I trust it as they are from Australia. but after i read the news, i am asking myself.. am i really right?
 
Actually, it doesn't take a lot of time or effort to make your own fresh baby food. I buy fresh veggies and fruits and boil/steam them before I put them in the grinder to make purees. Even with rice cereal, I use only a teaspoon of Earth's Best while mixing it with the brown rice powder that I grinded and cooked myself. You can easily freeze the rice powder in the freezer. One cup of rice goes a long way. You won't have to worry the food quality if you prepare it yourself.
 
carang said:
Heinz defended its Farley's rusks as an "ideal weaning food for babies from around four months".
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This really annoys me.

It is in direct contrast to the WHO recommendations that babies be exclusively BF (not even water) for 6 mnths.

My son is 15.5 mnths old and he does not have juice. He has no need for it. Juice is just empty calories.
 
Oh scary!!
totally agree with city jammer. Making your own baby food is not difficult and you can prepare a bundle and put them in the freezer. I don't do seasoning and it's quite tasty already. At least you'll be rest assured!
 
Luckily, my baby didn't like the baby food at all. I tried to taste it myself, and I didn't like it neither. What I did was to follow their ingredients and made my own baby food for my baby. It was super easy, you just need to get yourself a blender, and I did it for my baby for each meal, so no storage issue for me.
so, my baby grew up with zero preservative.
 
City Jammer said:
Actually, it doesn't take a lot of time or effort to make your own fresh baby food. I buy fresh veggies and fruits and boil/steam them before I put them in the grinder to make purees. Even with rice cereal, I use only a teaspoon of Earth's Best while mixing it with the brown rice powder that I grinded and cooked myself. You can easily freeze the rice powder in the freezer. One cup of rice goes a long way. You won't have to worry the food quality if you prepare it yourself.
Click to expand...

I'm with this girl - seriously, esp. with a helper there's a lot to be said for batch making purees / dinners, if you're weaning just freeze in ice cube trays - you can then mix and match when defrosting - easy peasy!!!

Get a copy of Annabel Karmel if you can find one, she'll take you through the stages of weaning and you won't need to touch a jar - she also does great recipes for alternative biccies, carrot cakes, muffins etc - I also have a fab recipe for Banana Cake for those icle ones with a sweet snack tooth!!
 
None of this surprises me. But, I think we have to consider this in perspective--at least for me--my toddler son has had a few jarred baby foods in his life but that wasn't the norm--we used them on family holidays or once in awhile for convenience--and in the whole range of things, even if some of them had a bit too much sugar or saturated fat in them, it doesn't really affect him long-term. Overall, he eats what we eat and as we eat well-rounded, low-sugar, low-saturated fat foods, he eats quite healthily.

I think every parent should do his or her research and find out exactly what is in the products they feed their small children. We definitely should not just believe, sight-unseen whatever companies tell us in their marketing--and that goes for any product out there but especially when it comes to baby products.

There have been many times in HK when I've picked up a product at the grocery store (even a product especially for babies) and thought, "This looks like something good" only to turn it over and look at the list of ingredients and find a load of preservatives, MSG, high fructose corn syrup, a lot of sugar and salt or just things that simply aren't going to do my baby's body any good. So, that product went right back on the shelf.

However, in the past when we did use jarred foods once in awhile almost always they were organic foods with no added sugar or salt and most of the time they were vegetables.

When it comes to juice, the way I was raised, we didn't drink juice or soda or anything besides water regularly (as a child I could count on one hand the number of times I had soda in a year).

Juice, in itself, whether it is fresh-squeezed with no sugar added or bottled is very acidic and hard on delicate baby teeth. Once in awhile if our family is having orange or grape juice with dinner I will dilute a tablespoon or so into a glass of water for my son--in this way he gets the faint taste of juice but without the high-sugar impact. At this stage, the last thing I need to be doing is raising a sugar addict.
 
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