Toddlers Get Half Their Calories From Ultra-Processed Food, Says Study | Research shows that 2-year-olds get 47 percent of their calories from ultra-processed food, and 7-year-olds get 59 percent.
https://www.newsweek.com/toddlers-get-half-calories-ultra-processed-food-1963269
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From the article: Nearly half of all the calories that toddlers eat in the United Kingdom come from ultra-processed food, according to [recent research](https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqy308), and this number rises to 59 percent among 7-year-olds.
“Eating patterns in the early years are important, as they help set habits that can persist through childhood and into adulthood,” said senior author Professor Clare Llewellyn, from University College London (UCL)’s Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care, in a statement.
Eating more ultra-processed food has been linked to a higher risk of developing diet-related diseases, such as obesity and type 2 diabetes.
“This is concerning, as infants and young children who gain weight too fast are also more likely to carry excess weight into their adolescent and adult life,” Vicky Sibson, director of the First Steps Nutrition Trust (FSNT), told Newsweek.
However, Llewellyn told Newsweek: “We know very little about the consumption of these foods among very young children. It is important to understand consumption patterns in this age group, as a first step before undertaking epidemiological [observations about public health] research linking individual differences in toddlers’ intakes with health outcomes.”
A group of scientists, led by researchers at UCL, analyzed data from 2,591 children born in the U.K. between 2007 and 2008.
These were children involved in the Gemini twin cohort study, whose parents had filled out three-day food diaries when the children were 21 months old and 7 years old.
If we work hard, we can get that number to 70%.
Gotta get ’em hooked as young as possible! Feed the system by feeding the kids!
I’m going to go cry for a while now.
Getting in here before someone with a severe vitamin K deficiency says there’s nothing inherently wrong with processed food.
I’d like to see their (or any official) definition of “ultra-processed food”, because Gerber Bay ~~Goo~~ Food seems pretty “ultra-processed” to me
Also – “parents had filled out three-day food diaries”. Seems like more than just a coincidence, but what if those three days were while on vacation or something similar where “home cooked” (which still doesn’t rule out “ultra processed”) was not an efficient option?
The system we all live in, has pushed us towards not having the time to learn, plan, or make food. Meal planning, shopping, and cooking takes time, time we don’t have if we work full time, exercise, sleep, and just have time to unwind……there’s not much time for eating right. A 7 year old, more in likely gets both breakfast and lunch from school, so what’s that tell you about school lunches. Best of luck to all those busy parent and children out there.
Can’t spend all day cooking if you have 8 hours of work to do. Can’t afford fresh groceries on poverty wages. Can’t access fresh food in a food desert.
There are lots of reasons why this is occurring.
Which toddlers? You know they have adults right?
Im close with 3 families with kids and they are all really into health foods and home made foods. Never seen a pudding cup or a gogurt or a tootsie roll near those kids.
I’m so glad the FDA is entirely corrupt, aren’t you guys?
Are they counting things like baby food etc as ultra processed? Because that would make sense to me for toddlers. Cheerios and stuff too. Possibly more an issue for the 7 year olds, but if that’s including breakfast and lunch at school that would make sense as a lot of school food is pretty processed.
>21 months old and 7 years old.
I’m not sure that range is “toddler” but setting that aside…
Cereal is ultraprocessed. Peanut butter is ultraprocessed. Jelly is ultraprocessed. Cheese is ultraprocessed. Bread is ultraprocessed. Instant oatmeal is ultraprocessed. And of course, basically all snacks are ultraprocessed.Â
I think just that list covers a lot of the calories that I consumed as a child.
Isn’t that normal? Don’t we feed the toddlers lots of soup, apple sauce, smashed pees, etc, i.e. foods that have been processed, on account of them not having teeth or the mobility to use a knife and fork yet?
Were we supposed to put a salad in front of baby and tell it to figure it out?
No wonder why so many kids have development issues, allergies, and autoimmune diseases