Baby food often contains too much
sugar
and is incorrectly advertised as suitable for infants under 6 months of age, according to a new World Health Organization report.
At least half of products analysed in three of four cities provided more than 30% of their calories from sugars, according to the study. About a third of them listed sugar, concentrated fruit juice or other sweeteners as an ingredient.
That raises the risk for
obesity
and diabetes later because it can wire young children to a lifelong preference for sweet foods. The WHO recommends babies be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of their lives, advice the world’s biggest baby-food makers like Nestle SA and Danone echo.
In addition, the WHO study showed that as much as 60% of baby food products were being advertised as suitable for infants. While permitted under European Un-ion law, it does break WHO’s guidance that food products to supplement breast milk or formula should not be marketed as suitable for babies under 6 months of age.
The WHO collected data on 7,955 food or drink products marketed for infants and young children from 516 stores in
Vienna
,
Sofia
,
Budapest
and Haifa,
Israel
between November 2017 and January 2018. The study didn’t mention any company or brand names
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