Baby food and sugar

Families in Southeast Asia are getting richer, and more parents are buying convenience foods to feed their babies. People believe that these foods are healthy, but many contain added sugars, while similar foods in Western countries don’t. UNICEF studied 1,600 baby foods in Southeast Asia and found that almost half had added sugars. In the Philippines, obesity and diabetes are becoming more common. Food experts warn that giving babies sweet foods early on could make them prefer sugary foods later. A popular baby food in the Philippines called Cerelac has about 17.5 grams of sugar in each serving, but labels don’t say how much of that is added sugar. Nestlé, the company that makes Cerelac, says it adds sugar to cover the taste of healthy things like iron. Nestlé plans to take away added sugar from their products in the next few years, but health experts want companies to reduce added sugar in baby foods now. Parents want to give their babies the best, but it is hard when many convenient baby foods have extra sugar.