Episode 37: Why many toddler snack foods are unhealthy

Episode 37: Why many toddler snack foods are unhealthy

Today I delve into the hidden world of toddler snacks, exposing the alarming truth about many popular supermarket options. As a mum and paediatric dietitian, I'm passionate about helping families make informed choices for their little ones' health.

Join me as I uncover the deceptive marketing tactics used by food companies, revealing how supposedly 'healthy' snacks can be loaded with sugar, salt, and artificial additives.

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Links
https://nourishwithkarina.com/feedingbabies
https://nourishwithkarina.com/3-week-feeding-kids-reset

Highlights:

Introduction (00:00.00)
Managing Children's Sweet and Salty Eating Habits (02:21.518)
Parental Role in Toddler Snacks (04:42.83)
Food Standards in Australia and New Zealand (07:07.374)
Food Industry's Deceptive Marketing of Baby and Toddler Products (09:24.43)
World Health Organization's Recommendations for Baby and Toddler Foods (11:39.31)
Rafferty's Garden Toddler Snacks Review (14:00.078)
Choosing Healthy Snacks for Toddlers (16:15.022)
Whole Food Food Selection and Labeling (18:29.102)
Food Labeling and Healthy Baking for Toddlers and Kids (20:47.726)
Healthy Food Choices for Kids (23:04.526)

Show notes

READ TRANSCRIPT

Show Notes

Join me as I uncover the deceptive marketing tactics used by food companies, revealing how supposedly 'healthy' snacks can be loaded with sugar, salt, and artificial additives.

Key Discussion Points:

High Sugar Content in Popular Snacks: Many toddler snacks contain alarming amounts of sugar, far exceeding recommended limits.

Misleading Marketing Claims: Brands often use phrases like "no added sugar" or "made with real fruit" to imply healthiness, even when the product is high in sugar.

Decoding Food Labels: Tips on reading and understanding nutrition labels to avoid unhealthy choices.

Health Implications: How excessive sugar and sodium can contribute to long-term health issues in children, such as obesity and diabetes.

Healthy Snack Alternatives: Recommendations for lower-sugar, low-salt options that are yummy!

Join me as I navigate through the supermarket aisles, shedding light on the good, the bad, and the ugly of toddler snacks.

Learn more about my membership program, head over to: https://nourishwithkarina.com/membership

Introduction (00:00.046)
You're listening to the Easy Feed Podcast, episode number 37, why many toddler foods are unhealthy. Hi there, I'm Karina Savage and with over 20 years experience feeding children, including my own, I've learned all the secrets that busy mums need to get their children eating better and actually enjoying healthy foods. So a huge welcome to the Easy Feed Podcast.
A huge welcome back. It is so good to have you. Today we are talking all about toddler snacks. Well, actually you could call them children's snacks as well, because a lot of children will still eat the same snacks and they are from the supermarket and most of the time they have hidden sugars in them that we don't even realize or many of us don't realize our children are consuming and they're not actually from the fruit. They're actually added sugar.
So today I want to dive into the world of snacks in the supermarket, especially those marketed at toddlers and children, because often they are quick and easy grabs. And I've certainly used them over the years and it's really easy and convenient to grab these snacks and chuck them in the bag when you're going out or pop them in the lunchbox. And kids often love them because they do have hidden sugar.
salt and they often have other flavourings and whatnot as well. So it's something that I think we need to be mindful of and this certainly isn't meant to guilt you into not giving kids snacks because or and this certainly isn't meant to make you feel super guilty about giving your children packaged snacks because yes they can have a place just like chocolate can have a place or lollies can have a place but it's about making sure that they have their place and that they're not taking
front stage having more of a regular appearance in their life than they should be because these snacks are bad for our children. Because these snacks are often developing our children's taste buds into sweet tooths or salty teeth, is that such a thing? And that means that they're going to have these taste preferences and carry these taste preferences with them.
Managing Children's Sweet and Salty Eating Habits (02:21.518)
into adulthood and then as an adult, it means that we've got a sweet tooth or we, you know, love tucking into the salt vinegar chips at nighttime. I mean, I do have a family member very, very close to my heart that loves sitting on the couch and tucking into a bag of salt vinegar chips. And so look, it's totally fine to do that as long as it has its place and it's in moderation and it's, you know, an appropriate amount. But the thing is, if we are really
developing our children's taste buds into really super salty or super sweet eaters, then the chances are that they may be over consuming the salty and sweet foods as they get older. And that's only going to increase their risk of health problems later on. So we really want to set them up to success. And the way we do that is to train their taste buds early to enjoy good food, healthy food. And it doesn't have to be super difficult or time consuming to make.
Now it doesn't have to be super expensive. Often these packaged snacks are actually more expensive, but we buy them because they're convenient and our kids like them and they'll eat them and it's not going to come home in the lunchbox. And then at least, you know, you thought, and then you think at least they've eaten something, right? Rather than nothing to get them through the day. So Bussy Eaters often love these snacks because they're white, they fit into the white crunchy profile that they love. And it's our job as parents to try to come up with some substitutes or
better options for these snacks that are lower in salt or sugar. And often when you're comparing products, I did a recent Instagram comparison on a couple of rice crackers and they were very similar products. I think it was the Pekish and the Sakata and they were both plain and they were both, I guess, similar to look at in terms of packaging the plain rice crackers. One had a lot more salt. One had a lot more ingredients and additives.
The sacatars were just simple, basic, I think it was three ingredients, the salt was lower, it was a much better product. So sometimes taking the time to just quickly spin the packet around, look at the sodium, look at the length of the ingredients list. Literally that's the two things that I would do. Look at the sodium or sugar, depending on whether it's a muesli bar or like a cracker that's more salty, look at the salt or sugar and look at the ingredients list. And if the ingredients list is
Parental Role in Toddler Snacks (04:42.83)
the long. So by long, I mean more than, you know, six or seven ingredients and the salt or sugar are high. Then yeah, absolutely. I would try to limit those as much as possible. Granted your child probably wants them and we need to factor that in. And so we need to keep some of those things in their life. But at the end of the day, it's our role as parents to provide those healthy foods for them, to guide them, to teach them what healthy eating is. And so
The more we allow them to have these foods, the more we are inevitably teaching them that these foods are okay. I was in the supermarket the other day buying a whole lot of toddler snacks for a recent television segment I did on toddler snacks. And I was in there just shoveling a whole lot into my bag and I came home and I analyzed them all and worked out which ones were terrible, which ones were okay. And I actually, yeah, I'll continue to do more food reviews on that package that I've got.
And also some cool little Instagram reels. The last Instagram reel I did was all about the amount of sugar in some of these snacks. So it's incredible when you look at these, the marketing, the marketing of these yogurt buds is phenomenal. And I'm not going to name and shame the brand, but it's pretty unimpressive when you look at a lot of their food products and they market it as 96 % yogurt and fruit or 97 % yogurt and fruit. And this
pretty well -known established trusted children's food brand. And you flip the label around and you look and the first ingredient is yogurt. And in the brackets, it says milk, sugar. So whilst they're marketing that as a healthy fruit yogurt product, it's actually no different in terms of the nutrition to white chocolate or milk chocolate. It's 62 % sugar.
So really these buds, and they kind of taste like chocolate, are like giving your child chocolate. But to the parent, they're marketed as healthy yogurt and fruit toddler snacks, which is ridiculous. And it really frustrates me. And it's really not fair to the average Australian consumer that doesn't want to spend hours in the supermarket looking at different food labels and whatnot. They should be protected. Children in Australia should be protected. And they're not. And this is wrong.
Food Standards in Australia and New Zealand (07:07.374)
This is really frustrating. There's a great group called the Food for Health Alliance and they used to be called Victoria's Obesity Policy Coalition. And they did a big review last year and they found nine in 10 toddler foods failed to meet international nutrition recommendations. It was incredible. And 67 % of baby and toddler foods in Aussie supermarkets failed to meet
seven nutrition recommendations set by the World Health Organization. The toddlers performed worse, as I said, and nine in 10 toddler foods failed. So it's a real problem and our Australian Food Authority, so we actually sit under the FASAN, so it's Food Standards for Australia and New Zealand. And that's the overarching body that regulates all of our food standards, what can be added to our food, what can be written on food labels,
how we are communicated to in terms of whether food labels are misleading. So all of these laws and regulations are created by food standards, Australia and New Zealand. And companies have to abide by those laws. So if I was to say, create a new muesli bar, I would have to go to the Fuzans recommendations and policies.
and look at how I would need to label the food, how I would need to market the food in terms of the language that I could use. It's got, you know, down to the detail of, you know, when you can call something light or when you can say something's low fat or when you can say something's low sugar or when you can say something's no added sugar. And at the moment, their regulations for no added sugar allows ingredients such as fruit pastes, fruit juice,
Concentrates so these things and really just basically sugar and they allow those ingredients to be Included in food products that say no added sugar when really it is it absolutely is an added sugar And it's not a natural sugar and apple juice concentrate is pure sugar Concentrated apple paste are sugar. They are nothing like that apple that it came from so
Food Industry's Deceptive Marketing of Baby and Toddler Products (09:24.43)
A lot of these companies are able to get away with making their products look a lot healthier than it is. No added sugar, apple and yogurt, because they don't have to declare the apple juice concentrate or the concentrated apple paste or purees as sugar. It was really interesting. This food health Alliance group made a comment in their media release and they said, for years, the processed food industry
has prioritised their profits over our kids' health. Australian families rightly expect foods marketed to vulnerable babies and toddlers to be healthy. Instead, the processed food industry pushes these baby and toddler products with names and claims that suggest they are healthier than they in fact are. That is 100 % true and it's really frustrating.
They've urged the Australian government to set higher standards for baby and toddler foods, but at this point, nothing has changed. Dr. Sandra DiMaggio from Victoria Health, CEO there, said, it's irresponsible and deceptive for the processed food industry to load up these products with added sugar and then market them specifically for toddlers. It's dangerous. They say it's a dangerous play to boost profits.
and can lead to problems later on in life for our children, including weight gain and type 2 diabetes. They say clear, transparent labeling is needed to help families better understand these products moving forward. And I 100 % agree. It's not honest, it's deceptive, and it's just to fill their own pockets. And unfortunately, we think these products are healthy for our children. We feed them to them. They love them. They develop a sweet tooth and they want more and it makes them more fussy. So we
We wonder why then our children become fussier because they've got this sweet tooth that they're developing with all these packaged snacks. And I know that we're giving them to them. So it is our responsibility to not give it to them all the time. But the food industry is making it a lot harder for our families. And I'm not happy about it. And I want us to really fight back at the moment. The only way we can fight back is to not buy these foods.
World Health Organization's Recommendations for Baby and Toddler Foods (11:39.31)
So the World Health Organization European office recommends that baby and toddler foods should not contain add -in sugars and other sweetening agents such as these concentrated fruit paste. They recommend that only limited amounts of dried or pureed fruits should be used to sweeten baby and toddler food. So that's like pure fruit, so a little bit of pureed apple or a little bit of sultanas, not these apple paste or concentrated fruit juices.
They recommend that baby and toddler finger foods and snacks should contain less than 15 % of energy from total sugars. So I translate that to mean when you're looking at the packet and you see that square table per 100 grams for sugars, I would aim less than 10 grams for toddlers. Less than 10 grams of sugar per 100 grams for toddlers. And this is on, you know, the muesli bars and the snacks and whatnot. And then with sodium, which is salt.
I would aim for less than 50 milligrams per 100 grams, which is not that high, which is a good thing. For children, I say to parents aim for under 300, sometimes 350 is a lot where a lot of them sit with the toddler snack, the snacks, the package puffed snacks that children love. So for children, I say three, 350 max, but for little ones, then definitely 50.
per 100 grams, 50 milligrams of sodium per 100 grams, which isn't much. So really food manufacturers should be following these recommendations, but they're not because they don't have to, because it means that our children will like them more because they're salty and sugary. And so they're going to sell more and fill up their pockets. So I'm just going to now have a look at some of the bars that I've reviewed recently. We start off with the Rafferty's Garden Apple Snack Bars.
They are 31 % sugar. And they, as I said, have these concentrated fruit paste or fruit juice concentrate in them, which is an added sugar. It's nothing like the apple that you know, you would buy it into. So that's the first one that I would just be really mindful of 31 % sugar. Then we've got the table of plenty mini rice cakes, the dark chocolate ones. They are 26 % sugar. So very different to just a plain rice cake with a bit of Vegemite or peanut butter or avocado on it.
Rafferty's Garden Toddler Snacks Review (14:00.078)
Then we have the Rafferty's Garden Apple and Raspberry Snack Bars on the front of the packet made with real fruit. 41 % sugar. 41 % sugar. Then we have the Rafferty's Garden Mixed Berry Yogurt Buttons on the front of the packet. 96 % yogurt and fruit. 62 % sugar.
Then we have a good one. It's called Whole Kids and it's banana drops. So, meltable banana drops, melts in the mouth. Less than 1 % sugar. Good on your whole kids. Then we've got Baby Mum Mums. My kids had these. They're the plain ones and I'll need to check the plain ones, but I got the sweet potato and carrot ones. 13 % sugar. This is for our babies. 13 % sugar.
Little bellies I was quite impressed with, they often had lower sugar content, so they've got organic mango yoghurt sticks. They were only 8 % sugar, so they actually would fit in the guidelines. They also had organic carrot puffs, these little bellies, and they were only 4 % sugar. They had organic strawberry pick -up sticks, these little bellies, and they were only 5 % sugar. They did unfortunately though have those melts, but...
They weren't as high as the, the Rafferty's Gardens ones, which was 62 % sugar. Their organic strawberry and banana and yogurt melts, well they were 41 % sugar, but still 41 % sugar, which is crazy. And my last one was the strawberry yogurt buttons and these say 97 % yogurt and fruit from Rafferty's Gardens and they are 62 % sugar. So parents beware, it's a minefield with toddler snacks. And I just went through
the ones that were higher in sugar. there were some good ones in there, but I was focusing on percent sugar. But then if you apply the same principles to sodium and start looking at the sodium per 100 grams, more with the cheese, the barbecue flavoured, more of those savoury profiles, then you will be really interested to see how much sodium is in a lot of those toddler snacks. And as I said, the guidelines for toddlers is
Choosing Healthy Snacks for Toddlers (16:15.022)
50 milligrams per hundred grams, which isn't much. And some of the products in the supermarket shelf definitely do abide by that. And the Little Bellies brand was quite good there, but a lot don't. A lot, you'll see the sodium for toddlers being 250, 300. So, and, and even beyond that. So it's really important that as parents, we are choosing these toddler snacks carefully.
Now, as we move into school age children, I would still be mindful of both salt, sugar, and how processed the food was and how many ingredients that were in there. I would be focusing on keeping the sodium under 350 per hundred grams. So 350 milligrams of sodium per hundred grams. And with the sugar as much as possible, keep it under 10, but sometimes it will sneak up to, you know, 15 or 20 grams per hundred grams, but that's then like 20 % sugar.
So really try to keep the sugar as low as possible. A lot of the music bells are now marketed as less than five grams of sugar per bar. And that's probably one of the few times that I'd say it's good to actually look per bar because you look at what they're actually consuming per bar. But you know, when you're comparing products is better to compare for a hundred grams because then you're comparing apples with apples, right? Pardon the pun. Then if you're looking at things like chips and messy monkeys and all of those different flavored rice and corn puffs,
look at the sodium per 100 grams and try to choose the one that's got less sodium. And also look at the ingredients list. If you see 20 ingredients on that product, there's likely to be additives and whatnot. And look, I've got a whole podcast on additives and preservatives and why we want to be limiting those. And that's why I encourage parents to choose an ingredients list that is shorter rather than longer.
Because if your grandma didn't know the name of the ingredient, then it's likely that it's not going to be good for your child or you either. So try to keep it to whole food as much as possible. So what are some better options then? Well, when I was in the supermarket looking at this whole range, I was looking at some better options then for the supermarket range of snacks. There's the muesli bars that are called Tasty, T -A -S -T -I, and they have a Lamington.
Whole Food Food Selection and Labeling (18:29.102)
range and they have, I can't remember the others, but there's a couple of them in that range. And pretty much the only ingredients are real fruit and real nuts and real oats. So it's a much purer, more whole food option. And this is what I'm encouraging you to choose when you're buying food products, try to choose foods that have whole foods. So I quite like the tasty, Lamington bars. Nut bars are often
more wholesome, but each just can't send nuts to school. Check with the Bliss Bowls because some of the Bliss Bowls are made with whole ingredients and then others are made with fruit juice concentrate and it's quite deceiving actually. There was a carrot and apricot one I reviewed recently and it, you look at it and it's like 97 % apple puree and then in brackets it says concentrate and I'm like there it is, there's the added sugar.
But with our food labeling laws as they stand at the moment, they don't have to label that as added sugar. So of course they are marketing as a healthy food product. I think there's about 2 % carrot in there. So it's something that is quite deceiving. So always look to the ingredients list and be warned, avoid fruit juice concentrates, fruit pastes, concentrated fruit paste and things like that because they're all added sugar. Look, there is I think about 60 names for added sugar. We've got
fructose, we've got glucose, we've got sucrose, we've got agave nectar, we've got malt extract, we've got dextrose, we've got coconut sugar, we've got brown sugar, maple syrup, honey, there's so many names for added sugar. So I think it's about trying to, you know, know some of those, but really at the end of the day, just look at the sugars per hundred grams, because they can't lie with how much sugar is in the product. They can lie with all the other stuff, unfortunately, but
They can't lie with how much sugar is actually in the product. So if it is whole dates or whole sultanas, then they still put that in the sugars line. They put the fruit sugar in the sugars line. So that's the only time when I wouldn't worry about the sugar in the sugars line if it's whole food. But if it's fruit paste and fruit juice concentrate and things like that, then I absolutely would keep sugar less than 10 grams per 100 grams.
Food Labeling and Healthy Baking for Toddlers and Kids (20:47.726)
But if it was whole dates or whole apricots or whole sultanas, so for example, in sultana brand, I think the sugars is like in the thirties, but that's fine. Or maybe it's the high twenties, but it's because the over 30 % of the product that is sultanas and most of the fruit sugar comes from the sultanas. So that's another confusing thing about the reading the food label is that sugars line can contain the natural milk and fruit sugar. It's not just the added sugar. So that's another thing that needs to change. They need to.
clearly differentiate in the sugars line which is the added sugar, which is the milk sugar, which is the fruit sugar. Again, something that has been the same since I started working 22 years ago. You'd think that they would have reviewed it and refined it by now. Pretty disappointing, huh? So yeah, we do need a real overhaul with our...
food standards and marketing to toddlers and kids because it's something that really frustrates me because it's not helping us nourish our future generation. So anyway, I'll get off my bandwagon because you've heard me say that enough now. So what else did I talk about the other day on TV when I was talking about this? I talked about healthy baked goods. So making some stuff at home if possible. Now look, it's not always possible.
We're busy, it's hard to carve out time on the weekend to make a batch of brownies or cookies or bliss balls or whatever. But it's so valuable and it's so helpful if you can, because then you've got something to throw in the lunchbox that's not processed. You've got something, something to throw on the afternoon tea plate that's not processed. Yeah. I mean, hopefully on the afternoon tea plate, you can put other wholesome foods. So fruit, you can put cheese, crackers, you can well the crackers.
I hate if two's good crackers, but you know, you might even just give them a bowl of cereal or toast with peanut butter. So afternoon tea is not as difficult, but it's about trying to have those wholesome foods that you can just throw at them that's slightly different. Cause I know my son comes home and he's like, I don't want breakfast options for afternoon tea. Like, okay then. But yeah, I'm a bit too much for yes mum. But anyway, I think that's why a lot of us now, I don't know. I think, well I'm a bit soft I think, but anyway.
Healthy Food Choices for Kids (23:04.526)
That's a bit of a digression. So it's about just trying to have some healthy foods, right? To put on the plate. And if you can carve out the time to make something, I've got heaps of great recipes for you. Some are free on my website. Others are member only. I've got a great membership. It's called Nourishing Kids where I help you to feed your kids better food and manage fussy eating and get more nutrition into them without the food bribe. So if you want to know more about that.
Head to my website, nourishwithkarina .com forward slash membership. We'd love to have you in there and you can, I'll pop the link in the show notes as well. So yeah, you've got some recipes to make up some healthy stuff on the weekend. Amazing. Otherwise try to choose those grabs from the supermarket that are more whole food based as much as possible because just be warned with a lot of those toddler snacks and kid snacks out there. They're really not good for our kids.
Children, they're expensive. I know I could love them, but the more we give it to them, the more we're reinforcing that they're okay. And the more they're developing their taste preferences for these foods. So the food companies are winning, right? And our kids' health is losing. So it's not good. It's not good. All right. All right, my little rat up there. But really, I just wanted to do this to help you better nourish your kids and make better choices for your children so that they are growing up to be really
good eaters, healthy kids with a preference for good quality food. And I know that you care about your children. You know, I'm preaching to the converted because you're listening, you care, you're invested in nutrition. So just being a little, so just paying attention a little more to the food labels where possible, just to really try to avoid some of those really high sugar, high salt, highly processed foods.
I know in previous podcasts I've talked about fibre and whatnot. I won't talk about that now. I don't want to confuse things, but just simply looking at the sugar, the sodium and the ingredients list is a really good start. Okay. I will wrap it up there. I've got some party favors to finish. I've got my son's 10th birthday party this afternoon, which is pretty exciting. So I will be on my way to get that sorted before, before we go to the party. I've made his cake. He wanted a mint.
So we've made that, we've iced that, we've decorated that. Here, you bless him. He's shoved a few extra Freddo frogs in the top. So he's kind of given it his own Freddo frog thing now. But it was very cute. I'll try and share a picture with you. Anyway, I hope you have a beautiful week and I can't wait to chat to you soon. Bye for now.