Food for small children: fruit juices
When, at the time of purchase, you find yourself in front of some baby foods, sometimes you wonder if they really have something different than all the others. In the case of fruit juices, the answer is yes.
Nectars for early infancy, in fact, must comply with a very precise regulation, more severe than the one that regulates non-specific products for children, which includes:
- the absence of pesticides;
- a limited percentage of sugars (not more than 15 g per 100 ml);
- the absence of additives and flavors with the exception of vitamin C and lemon juice;
- the presence of a quantity of fruit not less than 50%
Foods for children from 1 to 3 years: cow's milk or growth milk?
Milk is often the focus of discussion when it comes to baby food. Starting from one year of age, cow's milk can be introduced into the children's diet, except, of course, intolerances or different indications of the pediatrician. Then there are the so-called acts of growth, used in feeding children aged 1 to 3, as an alternative to cow's milk. But what do the growth milks contain? The formulation can vary greatly from brand to brand, in any case it is food for all industrial purposes; one part is milk, the rest is composed of various ingredients, among which may appear sweeteners (sucrose, glucose, fructose ...); complex carbohydrates (for example, potato starch), flavorings (vanillin), mineral salts and vitamins .
On the question of growth milk or cow's milk, there are divergent opinions. This summer, the BfR ( Federal Institute for Risk Assessment ), a German body that deals with food safety, rejected growth milk with a document entitled "Toddler milk drinks are not better than cow milk ". The ilfattoalimentare.it site has consulted, in this regard, the Italian Society of Pediatrics, which has provided a comment that basically stands in an intermediate position. The discussion therefore remains open. However, we can reflect on a question: is it really necessary for growth milk to contain added sugars and, sometimes, artificial flavors?
