08-31-2024, 07:44 PM
I am inclined to blame commerce.
Because in most of these things, we often overlook, or take for granted that baby food comes from a store. Stores do not make baby food. They are not responsible for its formulation. They 'sell' it.
Formulation itself is another "taken for granted" thing. Given the object of commerce is revenue, the more efficiently you spend to create your product, the more surpluses you'll see in your revenue stream. So there is a natural tendency to value profit over substance (and not just in baby food.)
But baby food is a consumer product now, and it is specifically for the single most vulnerable and dependent individuals in every single culture and community on the planet. I can understand how the product degrades under that paradigm...
But "degrade" how much? How far?
According to the report... when compared to the internationally-recommended values, U.S. baby food compare thusly;
Insofar as meeting that standard US baby food appears as follows:
Where's the FDA in all this? Don't ask... That's private food industry business...
From MedicalXpress: Researchers find 60% of infant and toddler foods sold in US do not meet desired nutritional standards
In their paper, published in the journal Nutrients, the group describes how they analyzed nutritional data for 651 infant and toddler food products for sale by the top eight U.S. supermarket chains in the United States and what they found when they compared the data with internationally recognized nutritional guidelines.
The work by the researchers on this new effort started when it came to their attention that despite parental concerns regarding the increasing popularity and health impacts of commercial foods marketed for infants and toddlers, no governmental nutritional guidelines currently exist in the United States. That made them wonder about the nutritional value of such foods.
To learn more, they traveled to the U.S. and purchased 669 toddler and baby food items from eight of the most popular grocery chains in Raleigh, North Carolina. They then scanned the barcodes on each of the food items using FoodSwitch to get a list of the materials and nutritional facts for each of the products under study.
I wonder if breastfeeding and preparing infant and toddler food at home could offset this?
I have to call out that famous quote... "I believe the children are our future..." We really shouldn't allow commerce to rule over those we must protect and nurture.
Because in most of these things, we often overlook, or take for granted that baby food comes from a store. Stores do not make baby food. They are not responsible for its formulation. They 'sell' it.
Formulation itself is another "taken for granted" thing. Given the object of commerce is revenue, the more efficiently you spend to create your product, the more surpluses you'll see in your revenue stream. So there is a natural tendency to value profit over substance (and not just in baby food.)
But baby food is a consumer product now, and it is specifically for the single most vulnerable and dependent individuals in every single culture and community on the planet. I can understand how the product degrades under that paradigm...
But "degrade" how much? How far?
According to the report... when compared to the internationally-recommended values, U.S. baby food compare thusly;
Insofar as meeting that standard US baby food appears as follows:
- 60% of the U.S. market food products studied did not meet international nutritional guidelines for babies or toddlers.
- 70% of them did not meet protein guidelines
- 44% of them had more sugar than is recommended
- (just 7% of the products they tested met sugar recommendations.)
- Approximately 25% did not meet calorie requirements
- 99.4% suffered from packaging misinformation where the products tested had at least one false claim and some had as many as 11.
Where's the FDA in all this? Don't ask... That's private food industry business...
From MedicalXpress: Researchers find 60% of infant and toddler foods sold in US do not meet desired nutritional standards
In their paper, published in the journal Nutrients, the group describes how they analyzed nutritional data for 651 infant and toddler food products for sale by the top eight U.S. supermarket chains in the United States and what they found when they compared the data with internationally recognized nutritional guidelines.
The work by the researchers on this new effort started when it came to their attention that despite parental concerns regarding the increasing popularity and health impacts of commercial foods marketed for infants and toddlers, no governmental nutritional guidelines currently exist in the United States. That made them wonder about the nutritional value of such foods.
To learn more, they traveled to the U.S. and purchased 669 toddler and baby food items from eight of the most popular grocery chains in Raleigh, North Carolina. They then scanned the barcodes on each of the food items using FoodSwitch to get a list of the materials and nutritional facts for each of the products under study.
I wonder if breastfeeding and preparing infant and toddler food at home could offset this?
I have to call out that famous quote... "I believe the children are our future..." We really shouldn't allow commerce to rule over those we must protect and nurture.
