A high proportion of baby foods are incorrectly marketed as suitable for infants under the age of six months, when in fact much of it contains inappropriately high levels of sugar- is the take home message from a new report by the UN.
High sugar foods may taste appetizing to an infant but can lead to early decay in baby teeth and also can encourage a harmful life long preference to sugary foods.
According to a new UN report, commercial baby food often contains too much sugar and display confusing ingredients.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) examined nearly 8,000 products from more than 500 stores in Hungary, Israel, Austria and Bulgaria between November 2017 and January 2018.
"In around half of products examined,...more than 30% of calories were from total sugars and around a third of products contained added sugar or other sweetening agents", the European branch of the WHO said in its report.
The WHO noted that while foods that naturally contain sugars, such as fruits and vegetables, can be appropriate in young children's diets, " the very high levels of sugars present in commercial products is cause for concern"
Early exposure to overly sweet products can create a potentially harmful lifelong preference for sugary foods.
The WHO have called for the banning of added sugars and sweeteners in all baby foods and said labels on candies and sweetened beverages- including fruit juices and condenses milk- should state the products are not suitable for children under three.
If preparing baby food at home, never add sugar and when buying processed baby food, watch the food label. Look at the sugar content in grams and divide by 4, to calculate the number of teaspoons of sugar .e. 8g of sugar= 2 teaspoon! Good Luck!
For more information, you can contact Dr Jennifer Collins at Northumberland Dental Care on 016688441, or www.nidm.ie
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