From indiatoday.in
Reports of added sugar in Nestlé baby products, such as Cerelac, are a wake-up call for new parents to carefully read packaging labels as well as the government to bring in strict guidelines
For marketing manager Ridhima Bhatnagar, discovering her 10-year-old son to be pre-diabetic last year came as a nasty shock. Bhatnagar, 42, from Delhi, says her child has had a craving for sweet things since he was an infant. A suspected reason could be that unlike her first child, who is now 16, Bhatnagar gave her second born a lot of readymade baby food.
“My mother-in-law was around when my first born was a baby, and she would insist on giving only home-cooked porridge or mashed vegetables when my child was old enough to eat solid food. But for my second baby, there was only a nanny. I would keep very busy at work, so opted for convenience at the time,” says Bhatnagar.
She now faces deep regret because she feels it was the added sugar in readymade baby food that might have triggered a constant craving for all things sweet in the boy. Indeed, several medical studies over the years have pointed out that too much added sugar creates an addiction for it. A study published in the Nutritional Neuroscience journal in 2005 theorised sugar’s impact to be the same as drug addiction—the more you have, the more you want.
The past few years, endocrinologists are noticing a worrying pattern of increasing childhood diabetes in India. In 2015, a pan-India survey of 17,000 children conducted over three years by Fortis SRL Labs found 66.11 per cent of children with abnormal levels of sugar.
Experts say this is largely due to the huge amounts of added sugar in packaged foods given by parents to their children. “The body needs glucose to function. But pumping glucose into your system is harmful. It is stored away as fat and increases the risk of obesity. Also, constantly high blood sugar levels decrease your insulin sensitivity and puts a lot of pressure on the pancreas—a step towards diabetes,” says noted diabetologist Dr S.K. Mishra.
While most foods have naturally-occurring sugar, it is the free or added sugar that is a problem. And it is no longer just white sugar that is a cause for concern because honey, corn syrup, jaggery, brown sugar and other caloric sweeteners have the same effect on the body’s blood sugar. “Unrefined sugars have some health benefits but end of the day, they are still added sugar. You can’t have them in huge amounts,” says Ritika Samaddar, regional head, department of clinical nutrition and dietetics, Max Healthcare.
Developing diabetes in childhood is a lifelong scar that will impact the overall quality of life, warn experts. Diabetes not only limits the kind and amount of food you can eat but substantially increases the risk for heart disease and liver, kidney and pancreatic issues. It also affects vision and hearing and triggers skin problems. “The earlier you develop it, the more the chances of starting to face its consequences at mid-age,” says Dr Mishra.
With the sources of added sugar surprising, doctors say new parents need a lot of awareness on how to read packaging labels. Recently Public Eye, a Swiss organisation that undertakes investigations, public advocacy and campaigns, published a report in collaboration with the International Baby Foods Action Network. It was based on tests on Nestlé products and found them to have more added sugar in Asian markets than in European ones. Most specifically, India’s most popular baby cereal brand Cerelac averaged nearly 3 grams of added sugar per serving.
“Convenience is good, but if people became aware of how packaged/processed foods impact a child or baby’s wellbeing, they would put in the effort to make the food themselves. Added sugar is not good for anyone under two years of age, and even after that should be given in limited amounts,” says Pune-based child nutritionist Anita Dhar.
Although official guidelines don’t ban added sugar in products for infants or children, the recent revelation of free sugars in baby food is an eye-opener on the need to bring in such norms.
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