ATLANTA — A new study claims that the marketing materials for baby food is misleading. As reported by ABC News, the study focused on the majority of baby foods in the United States.
The study, published in Nutrients, said 60% of the 651 foods marketed for children aged six months to three years old across 10 supermarket chains in the U.S. do not meet guidelines for infant and toddler food recommended by the World Health Organization.
“These findings highlight that urgent work is needed to improve the nutritional quality of commercially produced infant and toddler foods in the United States,” the researchers wrote.
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Channel 2′s Lori Wilson spoke to a pediatric nutritionist to find out how parents can get the best food for their kids, instead of foods the study claims have much more sugar and salt than their advertisements suggest.
Bailey Koch, a pediatric nutritionist, told Wilson that as far as what’s in baby food versus how they’re advertised, “that’s what they do.”
Koch said new moms aren’t “sent home with a guide on how to feed our babies,” and that the study in Nutrients wasn’t surprising.
The Nutrients study found that 70% of baby foods didn’t meet the recommended levels of protein and 44% had too much sugar, mentioning food pouches for fruits and vegetables that you can find on store shelves.
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Additionally, the study said one in five products were too salty, based on the WHO recommendations.
For a metro Atlanta area mom, Yasamine Salkar, her baby is just now getting on solid foods, but the food pouches mentioned in the Nutrients study “have not come into play yet.”
Six-month-old Mani is feeding himself just fine without them, according to Salkar.
“He feeds the furniture as well as himself, but it’s all good,” Salkar told Channel 2 Action News
Koch said the added sugar isn’t needed, so it’s important to check the labels.
“As a new mom it’s not always easy to go and do a lot of research on every product you’re going to buy, so if the label makes it look healthy, you’re going to throw it in your grocery cart, and I don’t think that’s very fair,” Koch said. “Kids do not need added sugar, they don’t need added salt, they need nutrient-dense foods, so you really have to be really intentional with what you’re feeding rather than convenience.”
Koch recommends doing a little planning ahead‚ saying it’ll go a long way to keeping your kids’ diets healthy.
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