Over the weekend there have been reports highlighting the high levels of sugar in breakfast cereals specifically targeted at children, plus another report highlighting biscuits for babies and toddlers that contain unhealthy fats and excess levels of sugar and salt. Cow & Gate have withdrawn some of their products and Heinz have defended their range of baby biscuits on the basis that they have a lower fat, lower sugar option available. I think there are two issues here.
Let’s look at breakfast cereals first. In my view, eating any cereal is better than none though I accept some are healthier than others. Research has proven that breakfast eaters are slimmer than those who skip it, and that our levels of concentration are increased if we start the day with this important meal. If we choose to eat cereal, we take it with milk which is a valuable source of protein which helps the growth and repair of our body – a fact which is particularly important in the case of growing children. The ideal is to select cereals with higher fibre content and you can check out the nutrition panel for sugar and salt content to discover which ones are better than others but in reality, I would rather a child ate a breakfast of any cereal, with some milk, than eating a packet of crisps and a chocolate bar on the way to school.
Now on to babies. Babies have tiny stomachs and need more energy-dense foods, which includes fat, to enable them to consume sufficient calories during their early lives as they grow so fast. That’s why, when I create any of my low fat diets, I always say that they are healthy for the whole family except for children under two years of age.
Once past that stage, I would question the wisdom of always giving toddlers biscuits to eat as snacks between meals. Why not introduce them to different fruits and vegetables to acclimatise their taste buds to healthier foods at an early age. It is not good that children are often only happy eating fish fingers and chips, chocolate biscuits and ice cream. I’m not against these foods being eaten occasionally, but if we are to help our children to be healthy into the future, we should help them to understand which foods are good for us and which ones should be classed as occasional treats. This is exactly what we are aiming to do by launching our Kids 2 programme. Check out our website for details.
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