An average toddler in the United Kingdom gets around 47% of its calories from ultra-processed foods like packaged yogurts, sweet cereal products, puddings, and wholegrain breads, recent findings say. That percentage increases to 59.4% by the time they are seven years old.
“An increase in the dietary share of ultra-processed food was accompanied by a reduction in intake of unprocessed and minimally processed foods in favor of ready-to-eat and ready-to-heat products, including pizza, processed meat, savory snacks, puddings and sweet cereal products, desserts, and confectionery,” the researchers wrote in the study. “It has been suggested that the hyper-palatable nature of some ultra-processed foods may partly drive continued consumption of these foods, which goes beyond habit formation.”
Prior research has shown that introducing toddlers and children to fruits and vegetables and making them a major part of their diets increases the chances of them accepting those food items, and might be more inclined to choose them over the temptation of ultra-processed foods well into their adulthood. In England, 22% of children aged 4 to 5 years are either overweight or obese. That percentage shoots up to 38% by the time they are 10 to 11 years old.
“Ultra-processed foods like children’s yogurts and breakfast cereals, are often marketed as healthy, and while they may provide micronutrients and fiber, they are often a source of free sugar,” the researchers added. “High free sugar intake increases the risks of dental caries and contributes to excess energy intake and is particularly concerning in toddlerhood when lifelong eating habits are becoming established.”
Lead author Rana Conway from the UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care and colleagues analyzed the data of 2,592 children whose parents had maintained food diaries that documented what their children consumed on a day-to-day basis.
They observed that toddlers who had consumed more ultra-process foods were getting less protein than those who consumed lower amounts.
In a press release, Conway said: “It’s not easy to feed children healthily in our current food environment. Highly processed foods are often cheaper than the foods parents would like to give their children, such as fresh fruit and vegetables.”
“Also, despite labels suggesting they’re a healthy choice, ultra-processed foods marketed for children often contain too much sugar and salt. This makes it harder for parents to make healthy choices,” she added.
The researchers highlighted that in the UK, foods marketed for children like breakfast cereals with cartoon characters, are the least healthy as they have extremely high levels of high fat, salt, or sugar.
“Across Europe, UPFs marketed for children typically have a worse nutrient profile – i.e. more fat, saturated fat, sugar, and sodium – compared with less processed products. Restricting promotion of these products is currently proposed in the UK to address childhood obesity, partly by prompting reformulation,” they wrote. “Integrated, far-reaching policies would be needed to redress the balance of children’s diets toward a lower proportion of ultra-processed foods, such as adding warning labels to products, inclusive school food policies and subsidies on fresh and minimally processed food.”
