Why 70% Of Kids' Food Is Ultra Processed And How It Affects Their Health | Ultra-Processed Life

sugar makes up about 1th of the daily diet of an American child and the problem starts earlier than you might think baby and toddler foods are getting sweeter every year and most of it is ultr processed which could have long-term Health impacts like heart disease diabetes and even cancer so what exactly is in these products and how can parents tell if they're buying something healthy I'm MRA and I'm a health editor at Business Insider thank to more and more miracles baby food emerged in the 1920s and was Ultra processed from the get-go the first baby

food is attributed to this man called Harold clap who was a father in Rochester New York he was looking after his infant son while his wife was sick so he fed him soups and strained peas and he thought how about I bottle these things up and give them to Local people in my community and even local drugs stores so soon this was being sold Nationwide parents with kids who maybe couldn't be breastfed or weren't thriving nutritionally would buy these broths and stews and strained peas and their kids would get better up until the 20th century

people thought that adult food was dangerous for babies under the age of one or even two or three fruits and vegetables were rarely introduced for a really long time so their nutritional level was way lower they really weren't getting that full plethora of protein carbs and vitamins but it was really gber who reinvented the wheel us know how you get there was this Father and Son duo called Frank and Daniel Gerber who had a canning company in femont Michigan according to gerba law there's a story that Daniel's wife Dorothy was at her home trying to

strain some peas for their sick infant daughter Daniel comes home to find Dorothy just completely exhausted covered in mushed peas so she asks Daniel could he get people at his canning company to make this for her canned fruits and vegetables were at the time in the 20s really expensive and kind of inaccessible so GBA was seeing that if they could make these Foods appropriate for babies and make them easily accessible and affordable there was huge potential for this market around 1926 1927 Gerber started testing out some formulas of what they could make for babies Gerber

prepares food for the most important person in the world your baby they were testing these products on Daniel's own daughter Sally and then also on other infant kids so by 1928 they had their first range of baby food so that was strained peas prunes a beef vegetable soup and they started rolling them out and it was a huge hit to learn why four out of five pediatricians who recommend baby food recommend Gerber baby food manufacturers were marketing these products as just as nutritious if not more nutritious than homemade food also that they were scientific that

they were Untouched by human hands these canned ingredients were basically pummeled with heat to sort of sterilize it and make it shelf stable and that Pro process basically breaks down everything inside so the solids and liquids separate it can also impact the color so it could get a little paler it can also impact the flavor so to offset that you can add in sugars and preservatives and fats that will prevent too much destabilization of the product inside so babies were getting these foods but there are longer lasting effects that we didn't yet appreciate so the

global baby food market has grown significantly in the last decade from 9.6 billion in 2010 to 17.9 billion in 2022 experts largely agree that 70% of food for babies and toddlers in the US is ultr processed so I'm going to measure how much sugar is in one of these pouches I'm picking this one really highlights that it's naturally flavored and then it's a yogurt pouch but it contains 14 g of sugar of which 8 G are added sugars and babies and toddlers according to the who should not be consuming added sugar so let's have a

look at what that looks like one so that's how much added sugar is in this pouch three if you look at this that looks like a lot of sugar to me I can't imagine just mixing that with water and just drinking that in one go but I could imagine consuming all of this within a couple of minutes so it just goes to show how much hidden sugar there might be or how much sugar there might be in a product that you don't really notice straight away by looking at the front of the package this is

something that's quite pervasive in all of baby and toddler food there's a recent report published by the World Health Organization that showed that baby and toddler foods are getting sweeter every year the amount of sugar either added to or just inherent in these products has ballooned in the last 10 years and it's something that may not be that straightforward to notice if you're just reading the label especially if you live in the US in other countries sugar that is derived from fruit such as fruit concentrate is categorized as free sugars in the US that is

not always the case so I've got a bunch of products here and I'm going to go through them starting from about 6 months going up in age we'll look at the nutrition labels at the ingredients and identify what are the red flags and what are the green flags and we're going to start with pouches because that is the biggest sector in baby food and the fastest growing this has grown about 900% since 2010 first up we have happy baby green beans pear and spinach so this pouch is really presented as a dose of vegetables even

look at the design it's got this sort of crown of spinach up here and then a bed of green beans down here it says full serving veggies up here I had kind of missed the pair um but you know that's technically there the first ingredient is going to be the most plentiful so in this it is organic green bean puree and then the second one is organic pear puree this is marketed as a veggie but it's a lot of sugar for a baby to be eating in a vegetable meal on this one there are fewer

calories per serving than a dietitian would normally look for inside something for a baby or a toddler you're looking for 60 calories per 100 G This Is 50 calories per 113 G so that is a little lower so overall not so bad but there are a couple of red flags including the low calorie count per serving and the high amount of sugar from pear in a statement to Business Insider happy family which is the parent company of happy baby said that this pouch provides a full serving of organic veggies which for kids is a/4 cup

it also said that there's no added sugar and because baby tastes lean to the naturally sweet we wanted to support early veggies introduction and acceptance next we are going to look at Earth's Best Organic Apple Peach oatmeal fruit and grain puree it has 60 calories per 99 G serving 5 Mig of sodium total sugars 12 G and that includes 2 G of added sugar that is a red flag immediately the most plentiful ingredient in this pouch is organic apple puree concentrate then water then organic Peach puree concentrate the two fruits in this are concentrates that

means that the sugar from the fruit has been extracted and distilled and it's basically acting as an added sugar so the amount of sugar that a child is going to consume from this when they SU it up pretty quickly is not insignificant if I look on the back of this label it says made with wholesome ingredients from our family of certified organic farmers but the problem with that is that that's not actually a regulated term so it doesn't really mean anything and the reality is quite a bit away from the general vibe that this package

creates unfortunately that's what experts say is a health Halo the who specifically calls on companies not to list all of these positives when there are also negatives hidden in the package in this case there's added sugar and the two fruits included in this are actually concentrates not whole fruits now I'm going to get this apples blueberries and oats this is from happy baby Organics so we have 80 calories per 113 G serving that is good 13 g of sugar Which is higher than some of the other pouches that I've looked at but this is a

fruit based sweet product the fact that you have no added sugar here means that all of the sugar is coming naturally from the fruits in the ingredients list Organic Apple puree organic blueberry puree mil organic whole grain oats if you're going to have oats in a product you do want it to be whole grain that means that it contains every aspect of the grain the only ingredient you might not recognize in this ingredient list is ascorbic acid and it's used commonly in processed food to inject a bit of vitamin C but mainly to improve shelf

stability and also to kind of fuse back together the nutritional makeup of ingredients that have been broken down in the process pouches are really interesting in the sector of baby food they're really really popular at the same time because these things are really mushed up and do have sugars inherently infused into them you're consuming these sugars much faster and not necessarily burning the calories or digesting the nutrients in the same way that you would with homemade food what you want them to be doing is seeing a green bean seeing an apple touching it so that

they associate Whole Foods positively in their brain and build that connection and they also have that sort of sensory experience of learning how to interact with foods and feed themselves we also have Puffs so baby Puffs is a really classic snack you can have them from about the age of 6 months old and onwards they've got a really good level of texture this one that we got actually pretty healthy it contains organic peanut butter organic whole grain yellow cornmeal organic deed yellow cornmeal and sea salt very few ingredients and it doesn't have added sugars which

is good the thing that doctors usually care about with Puffs is that it can be a vehicle for added sugars and often they're made with sort of low nutrient grains like rice or wheat without the germ so now I'm going to look at some food that's marketed to babies who are slightly older around 8 months old or crawling first we have happy baby organic yogis freeze dried yogurt and fruit snacks this one is mixed berry gluten-free and made with real yogurt we really associate yogurt with probiotics and things that are going to nurture your gut

but crucially here it does say in small print does not contain live and active cultures so that means it's not necessarily going to be a fountain of probiotics that you might get from a fresh yogurt some things that stand out to me number one tapioca starch is often used in gluten-free foods and this is listed as gluten-free but tapioca starch is often seen as something that is a deliverer of empty calories and while it can be healthy if you're using it to make something it can still sort of spike your blood sugar in certain ways

another red flag is that this product contains things listed as flavors mixed berry flavor and STW flavor that means that that is not coming from the real fruit itself you've created that flavor and based on using different kinds of chemicals and oils it's artificially made whereas in other products you might see a fruit concentrate or puree or the fruit itself it's really confusing because when you get this product that says mixed berry made with real yogurt it's really kind of portraying this idea that this is real and natural and then when you look on the

back you get to the very bottom of this long and Tiny printed list of ingredients and you see that some of these flavors aren't actually from the real fruit these sort of dissolvable yogurt products they're really common with within the baby food sector and it's a bit of a pet peeve for dietitians and doctors and researchers in this area cuz they say that this is just a classic way of delivering unnecessary sugars and chemicals and preservatives to kids let's open it so holding this I can really feel this kind of the milk powder and dried

aspect of this they feel really sort of dry and crispy let's give it a taste wow yeah not very satisfying I will say but I am not 8 months old so maybe it would hit different if I was a baby tasting this really helps me to understand what food researchers say when they talk about multiphase processing when you feel it it feels crispy you put it in your mouth and then it dissolves and you get this kind of yogurt creaminess and then it disappears kind of in stly and that now is making me want to

eat another one which is kind of wild I can see that process when my brain wants to repeat that multifaceted eating experience the problem longterm with that if you're training a baby on how to perceive and interact with food based on something like this it is a really difficult starting point because you expect that every food you eat is going to deliver these like constant shots of like dopamine release and that everything's going to have this multiphase multi-textural thing then when you get to eating a whole food that is going to be delivering so many

great nutrients it might feel kind of like unexciting by comparison a baby might be training themselves to expect this level of manufactured brain experience when they eat a food like this we asked happy family for a comment about this snack product they said it's made with yogurt cultures and fruit and it's freeze dried to melt in your mouth for a fun texture Adventure Ure they also said the 1 G of added sugar per serving can be balanced in the context of an overall nutritious eating plan so now let's look at some foods for toddlers we're

going to start with animal crackers for toddlers they are cinnamon Graham flavored and they come in these really sweet animal shapes on the front it says that this is delivering 10% of your daily value of iron and vitamin E per serving soundss like nice baked with whole grains also says non GMO ingredients again here we have love to learn animal shapes this is something you see a lot on baby food where it's really marketing not just a nutritional value but also a cognitive value that your baby might be using this food to learn and develop

it says it just contains goodness no artificial sweeteners flavors or colors total sugars 2 G which includes 2 G of added sugar so all of the sugar in this is added which means that it's not naturally coming from the ingredients that it's made from it's being added in separately so ingredients list some of the red flags that stand out to me can sugar being one of the most plentiful ingredients is not ideal there is Sunflower Oil and then a ton of other chemicals which are basically used to fortify these ingredients against the process it's just

a whole mix of preservatives that reads more like something I would see on like a storeo packet of bread for an adult if you Google each of these individual things they're not necessarily bad for you in tiny amounts but the thing about having them all together is it's an indication that this is ultr processed and then it's important to note that the front of this package really advertises the fact that this is high in iron and vitamin E but when you look at the ingredients list it shows you that those are things that have been

added in as supplement ments despite having read this whole ingredient list that makes it sound awful they do look good I'm excited to try them wow okay I'm smelling that Sugar smells great oh this is really sweet actually there's a little dog kind of scarily there is another dog that doesn't have eyes these are really cute let's give it a go I really like crackers like this even though I'm in my 30s but this is really sweet the re reason that sugar is risky for kids especially when they're under the age of two is that

their whole body is developing and recent Studies have shown that kids who consume a high amount of sugar in their early years have a much higher risk in their whole lifetime of having a stroke heart attack developing diabetes obesity all these kinds of things the who has explicitly called on manufacturers to stop putting added sugar in food that is marketed to kids of this age because it can create these cascading health effects and a level of addiction in a statement to Business Insider Gerber said that these animal crackers are an occasional snack option when Incorporated

within a varied balanced diet so let's look at some toddler milk here I have Nestle Neo this is for age three and up it contains vitamin A and D iron and zinc immunity there's a big badge here that says it has iron to help with brain development again classic clim made with baby food wow huge ingredient list so some things that stand out before we get to the nutritional facts is that there is so much sweetener in here corn syrup and sugar you also have milk fat and nonfat milk these are things that have been

processed and broken apart and then the real giveaway for that is that you have this whole collection of other chemicals including sodium ascorbate feros sufate niacinamide so this has a bunch of stuff added back in mainly because all of that stuff was stripped out in the process this is why doctors agree that toddler milk is kind of unnecessary because when you get to the age of three you can consume milk like you don't need this necessarily it's a sector that has been created because people buy it we asked Nessie for a comment about Neato they

said this product helps parents to meet certain nutritional needs of young children above one year of age we'll also look at pouches specifically for toddlers so there is Beach Nut iron and zinc this smoothie made by Sprout Organics which honestly sounds like a kind of smoothie I would want to make myself so the distinction between these pouches and pouches you see for younger ages is that P es for toddlers tend to have more ingredients or ingredients that would be harder for a younger baby to digest so let's look at this one you can already see

on the front of the label that it has flax seed which is a really healthy kind of seed really good for your digestion but it's you know slightly more uous to digest so this is something that would more be appropriate for an older child to consume looking at the label is really helpful actually because here I've got a lot of of natural ingredients that I recognize here there are a couple that stand out that have sulfate monohydrate pyro phosphate it doesn't necessarily mean that it's unhealthy but it's a little red flag that there may be

ultra processing at play things stripped out or things added in so it's something to research for yourself Beachnut said in a statement that they believe in choosing purposeful ingredients to help introduce babies and toddlers to a wide variety of flavors and textures so the thing with ultr processed baby in toddler food that has like little droplets of processing and sweetener and preservatives and artificial colors it's really introducing babies and toddlers to this kind of texture and flavor of Foods opening the door to this whole world of kid Foods once you get over the age of

six that's when this whole industry explodes into all the like sugars and preservatives and added colors you see things like cereals which look really exciting they've got all these colors and they have the same kinds of claims like excellent source of vitamin D but if you look at the label this contains a whole world of things it contains artificial colors that doctors really warn against including red 40 which has been linked to different issues with heart and also there are some research that links it to ADHD yellow 6 blue one and other color added there's

all these kind of vague terms on this label that really don't specify what you're consuming but the front of it really platforms that this is going to be a good source of nutrients Ultra processed foods are associated with short-term and long-term Health impacts for everyone and babies have their whole life ahead of them short term there might be skin issues there might be digestive issues isues but longterm it increases your risk of things like heart disease obesity diabetes chronic metabolic issues so that's the big picture concern of babies having Ultra processed food as a high

proportion of their diet so to wrap up if you are in the supermarket and you're between all these different labels really focus on things that have very few ingredients ideally three or less no added sugar no artificial sweetener no added colorance and a natural sources of nutrients and red flags you know avoid corn syrup any ingredients you don't recognize preservatives colorance the most important thing for parents to hold on to when they're trying to navigate this incredibly complex industry is that the responsibility is not all on you the parent to work this out the responsibility

is really on Manufacturing ERS and Regulators to make this easier for parents in the US and around the world parents really really don't have time to be making all of the right decisions there is so much pressure on parents if you have to use a pouch use a pouch and where possible give your child a piece of broccoli so that they get the experience of recognizing that food playing with that food touching that food smelling that food but if you're in a find and you're picking up one of these ingredients that's absolutely fine the point

here is doing the best that you can when you can and not holding all of the anxiety yourself who designs these animals there's also a cow and a duck these are really cute and a bear and a cat