Posts

nestle

Nestlé Adds Sugar To Infant Milk Sold In Poorer Nations, According To New Report

/in , /by

A new report has found that Nestlé, the largest consumer goods company in the world, adds sugar and honey to infant milk and cereal products that are sold in poorer nations. This directly contradicts international guidelines that are implemented to prevent childhood obesity and chronic diseases, according to The Guardian. 

The report itself came from Public Eye, a Swiss investigative organization. The organization sent samples of Nestlé’s baby-food products sold in Asia, Latin America, and Africa to a Belgian laboratory for testing. 

After testing the products and examining the packaging, the report revealed the presence of sugar in the form of sucrose, or honey in samples of Nido, one of Nestlé’s milk formula brands intended for infants aged one and up. They also found it in Cerelac, a cereal that is aimed for kids aged six months and two years. 

In the main European markets for Nestlé, there are no added sugars in formulas for young children. Some cereals that are advertised for older toddlers have added sugar, but none in any product targeted at babies between six-months-old to a year. 

Embed from Getty Images

“Nestlé must put an end to these dangerous double standards and stop adding sugar in all products for children under three years old, in every part of the world,” said Laurent Gaberell, the agriculture and nutrition expert for Public Eye. 

Obesity in general is an ongoing and growing problem in lower and middle income countries. According to the World Health Organization, in Africa specifically the number of overweight children under five has increased by nearly 23% since 2000. 

The Guardian reported that worldwide, more than 1 billion people are living with obesity. 

In many countries it can be difficult for consumers to tell whether or not a certain product contains added sugar or how much is present due to how the nutritional information is printed. The labels also often have natural sugars found in milk and fruit under the same heading as any added sugars.

For European regions, the World Health Organization has guidelines that says no added sugars or sweetening agents should be permitted in any food for children under three. 

The UK recommends that children under four should also avoid food with added sugars, because of their risk of gaining weight and developing tooth decay. The US government has guidelines that simply recommend children under two avoid food and drinks with added sugars. 

The Public Eye report was written alongside the International Baby Food Action Network. Public Eye stated that data from Euromonitor International, a market-research company, showed that global retail sales for Cerelac exceeded $1 billion. The highest of those figures came from low and middle income nations; 40% of sales were within just Brazil and India. 

Embed from Getty Images

Dr. Nigel Rollins, a medical officer at the World Health Organization, said this new report shows “a double standard that can’t be justified.”

Researchers found that biscuit-flavored cereals for babies six months and older contained 6 grams of added sugar for every serving sold in Senegal and South Africa. The same exact product sold in Switzerland has no added sugars. 

In India, tests performed on Cerelac products had, on average, more than 2.7 grams of added sugar for every serving. In Brazil, two out of eight products were found to have no added sugar, but the remaining six products had about 4 grams in each serving, according to The Guardian. In Nigeria, one product had up to 6.8 grams.  

Additionally, tests on Nido brand products showed a significant variation in sugar levels, much like with Cerelac. Worldwide retail sales for Nido products have grossed more than $1 billion. 

In the Philippines, no added sugars are in products aimed for toddler consumption, however, in Indonesia, Nido baby-food products all contain around 2 grams of added sugar per 100 gram of product in the form of honey. 

“We believe in the nutritional quality of our products for early childhood and prioritize using high-quality ingredients adapted to the growth and development of children,” a Nestlé spokesperson stated. 

“[Within the] highly regulated category of baby food, Nestlé always complied with local regulations or international standards, including labeling requirements and thresholds on carbohydrate content that encompasses sugars and declared total sugars in its products, including those coming from honey,” The Guardian reported. 

“Variations in recipes depended on factors including regulation and availability of local ingredients,” the spokesperson said.

kids

Children Who Are Considered Obese Are Twice As Likely To Develop Multiple Sclerosis, According To New Study

/in , /by

Children who are considered obese could face more than double the risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS) as adults, according to a new study from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. 

MS can impact the brain and spinal cord. It causes a range of potential symptoms such as problems with arm or leg movement, sensation, balance, or vision. MS can also lead to serious disability throughout one’s life. 

The Karolinska Institute will be presenting the findings of their study at the European Congress on Obesity in May in Venice. 

Embed from Getty Images

Previous research has speculated that there is a link between high body mass index (BMI) in adolescence and a larger risk of MS in adulthood, however, most of the studies that suggested this were using self-reported data, so it was difficult to arrive at an accurate conclusion. 

With this particular study, the researchers wanted to evaluate the risk of developing MS by utilizing a large population of obese children to compare with the general population.

According to reports from the Guardian, researchers analyzed data from the Swedish Childhood Obesity Treatment Register, which utilizes a database known as Boris. This institute is one of the world’s largest registries for treatment of childhood obesity.

The study looked at data from more than 21,600 children with obesity aged two to 19 who joined the registry between 1995 and 2020. The children, on average, started their treatment for obesity when they were around 11-years-old. They also compared that data to more than 100,000 children without obesity to get the greatest comparison possible. 

Embed from Getty Images

The children monitored in the study were tracked for about six years, and during the follow-up period, 28 of those with obesity were diagnosed with MS (0.13% of the group) and 58 in the group without obesity (0.06% of the group). 

Within both groups, the average age of the MS diagnosis was 23-years-old. 

“Despite the limited follow-up time, our findings highlight that obesity in childhood increases the susceptibility of early-onset MS more than twofold,” the authors stated. 

“One of the effects of obesity in childhood is that it causes a low-grade but chronic inflammation, and most probably this inflammation increases the risk to develop several diseases such as MS,” study authors, Emilia Hagman, an associate professor, and Prof Claude Marcus, said.

“It is also believed that chronic low-grade inflammation increases the risk for other such diseases as asthma, arthritis, type 1 diabetes, and some forms of cancers. However, we know that weight loss reduces the inflammation and most likely the risk to develop such diseases.”

New Study Reveals Severe Obesity Is On The Rise For US Children 

/in , /by

An updated study published in the journal Pediatrics shows that although obesity rates in children were dropping last decade, it’s now on the rise. 

National data suggests that around 2.5% of preschool aged children were severely obese during 2020. Heidi Blanck of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and one of the study’s authors, spoke on these discouraging findings:

Embed from Getty Images

​​“We were doing well and now we see this upward trend. We are dismayed at seeing these findings.”

The study itself collected data from 2 to 4-year-old children that are enrolled in the Women, Infants and Children program through the US Food and Nutrition Service. This particular program helps provide healthy foods and other services to low-income families with preschool children. As a part of the program and study, the children were both weighed and measured, according to the AP. 

The researchers have collected data from the current and past decade from more than 1.6 million kids within the program. It found that in 2010, 2.1% of the children in the program were severely obese. In 2016 that percentage dropped to 1.8% but rose up to 2% by 2020; that’s roughly 33,000 out of the 1.6 million.

Embed from Getty Images

20 states across the country saw the most significant increases, with California having the highest rate at 2.8%. Among different racial and ethnic groups, Hispanic kids saw the highest increase as well at 2.8%. 

Blanck stated that it’s not totally clear why these increases occurred. The initial drops in obesity rates were attributed to 2009 policy changes, including removing juice from infant food packages, reducing saturated fats in foods, and increasing accessibility to fruits and vegetables. 

“The daily hardships that families living in poverty are facing may be harder today than they were 10 years ago, and the slight increases in the WIC package just weren’t enough,” said Dr. Sarah Armstrong, a Duke University childhood obesity researcher.

Compared to last decade, the number of children in the WIC program has declined, and the data was also impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, as researchers were still analyzing obesity rates when fewer parents were taking their children to the doctors.

“Despite its limitations, it was a very well done study. It gives you a hint of what’s going on,” said Deanna Hoelscher, a childhood obesity researcher at the UTHealth Houston School of Public Health, concluding that the researchers are “thinking it’s going to get worse.”