Posted on 03/01/2006 6:19:07 PM PST by blam
Organic baby food 'lacking in nutrients'
By Nicole Martin
(Filed: 02/03/2006)
Organic baby food may not be as healthy as parents think, according to research by Which? magazine.
Sales of organic food have soared in the past few years, with three in four babies regularly eating products by a host of manufacturers including Heinz and Baby Organix.
An increasing number of infants are being fed organic baby foods
But some foods that parents believe are best for their children's health are high in sugar and low in essential nutrients, the consumer watchdog found.
It also claimed that, despite the introduction of rules governing baby food, labels on some products were "confusing and creative".
The rules stipulate that if a protein is the only ingredient in the food's name at least 40 per cent of the food should be that protein. "Beef puree", therefore, should be 40 per cent beef.
If the protein comes first in a food's name, as in "chicken and vegetable dinner", it must make up at least 10 per cent of the food, and if the protein appears elsewhere in the name it should comprise at least eight per cent.
Which? said it believed that Heinz Mum's Own Fruity Chicken Casserole should have 10 per cent chicken instead of eight per cent because the meat is the first ingredient in the product's name.
However, Heinz said it was clear from the term "fruity" that fruit was part of the ingredients.
"There are also pictures of apples, pears, onions, carrots and potatoes on the product, which tells parents that the product contains other ingredients apart from chicken," said Nigel Dickie, a Heinz spokesman. "We go to enormous lengths to ensure we comply with the law."
The consumer watchdog also claimed that parents were unaware of the high water content in some products and food experts also expressed concern at the low iron content.
The nutrient, essential for growth and development, is often used to fortify baby food, but is not put in organic food because of restrictions.
Judy More, a paediatric dietician, said a baby fed exclusively on commercially-prepared organic food could consume 20 per cent less iron than a baby eating the non-organic variety.
Which? said that food products for toddlers older than a year did not have to meet the same standards as baby food, meaning that the salt and sugar content in healthy-sounding snacks could be surprisingly high.
Just feed 'em bacon and eggs. They'll live.
YUCK.
thats why my kids never ate jars of baby food.
i made my own! :) super easy, better for them,
and easier to transition to table food. heck,
who cant steam up a little extra green beans
to mash up for the baby???
Ya think ?
The organic stuff's no better than anything else. Worse in some cases - some organically grown vegetables have higher concentrations of naturally occuring plant toxins, since the plant is forced to naturally defend itself from pests/diseases.
Funny how that works. So the organic food folk would rather get more of the nature's toxins (boy are some of those things nasty - try eating a raw potato) than something grown with the use of modern pesticides that have spent 10 years in R&D and safety testing.
Thank you, I'll stick with the regular (cheaper) food.
My parents thought I would starve as a baby. Just would not eat baby food. One day at a relative's house a platter of fried eggs came by and I snagged one and started eating.
After that I was raised on table food that was finely chopped. For our children we had one of those little one serving choppers, what we ate went into the chopper and the kids ate also. No problems, they all turned out fine.
Yeah, how did we survive. I didn't have parents who spent a buck apiece on those itty-bitty baby food jars. Whatever they made they simply mashed it up and plopped in down in front of my crying ass.
To see parents today, you'd think no kid could ever have reached childhood without the little jars of Gerber's.
Maybe it's convenient, but those little punks eat most of the same stuff we do. Corn on the cob and ribeye steaks don't work so well at first, but it doesn't have to be some "special baby food or they die" kind of routine.
Mmmm. Beefy.
Alpo, Gerber... probably made out of the exactly same stuff.
real food? what a concept! ;)
my kiddos have always been great eaters, not picky, no food
allergies, no probs! they always ate whatever we ate...just
mashed up! how convenient is that? got a great book ("feed
me i'm yours") when my oldest was a baby and learned all
the tricks for making it all myself. so easy and so much
better for them too!
Alpo's probably better. =)
We used one of these....
......
...and made our own.
"Feed ME I'm Yours".....ah, that brings back memories.:)
heh, i used my blender and made it in bulk!
steam, blend, pour in ice cube trays, freeze
then pop 'em into freezer baggies! how easy!
p.s. We also used cloth diapers.
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I still miss those bygone days with my Dad... |
Fantastic pictures on your homepage. Your kids are beautiful!
ya know, if its better for them, easy to do and saves
parents money i say go for it! let the others feed
theirs that icky jar stuff...blech! mine never touched
the stuff! not even my nearly 10 lb at birth firstborn.
i was yelled at by hospital nurses for NOT waking him
up to nurse him in the hospital...geez! i dont think a
soul on the planet misses when hes saying hes hungry.
um he's over 6 ft tall now and still growing! yikes!
When one of my babies was at a restaurant with us once we ordered organic baby food for him. He hated it. Since I hadn't been sure if he would like it in the first place the waitress took it off our bill and we just ordered applesauce instead.
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