Kids food

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Cookie monsters, bear sausage, yoghurt in mini format: do children need special foods?

Food for minis

Cookie monster, bear sausage or yoghurt in mini format: an entire supermarket could be filled with food just for children, and the number of products is also steadily increasing. A few years ago a study by the Research Institute for Child Nutrition (FKE) in Dortmund confirmed this: In 1996 there were around 80 different children's foods on the market, in 2001 there were 244. Today there are certainly much more.

If you believe the advertising, the offspring cannot become big and strong without magic flakes and breaded fish figures. The parents are baited with advertising slogans such as "for the extra portion of milk" and "with valuable whole grain".

The kids, on the other hand, are attracted by the brightly colored look, laughing penguins and the plastic runabout in the breakfast cereal package. So bait for young and old - double protection so that the most expensive products actually end up in the shopping cart.

Unnecessary and unhealthy

Children do not need any special food, say the experts from the German Nutrition Society (DGE). From a nutritional point of view, children can and should eat the same thing as adults after the first year of life - just in different amounts.

Children's products are not only superfluous, they can even harm the little ones. On the one hand, they almost always contain a lot of sugar and / or fat, generously garnished with aromas and flavors.

On the other hand, the breakfast cereals and muesli bars for kids are usually enriched with plenty of vitamins and minerals - especially for advertising purposes. Wherever it says "with vital calcium" or "particularly high in vitamin C", parents like to take it - in the hope of doing something good for their offspring. But the motto "better too much than too little" does not apply to vitamins and minerals. This also applies to the other vital nutrients (carbohydrates, fats, proteins): For example, an excess of fat-soluble vitamin A can lead to dry skin, headaches and vomiting in the long run; Too much fats and carbohydrates makes the bacon rolls grow and quickly turns the little Maxe into a fat Maxe.

The sum makes it

The tomato soup with the funny animal figures or a cup of special yoghurt are only harmful if the children's products are on the daily menu. The Stiftung Warentest has calculated it (test 6/2004): If a schoolchild only eats children's food for a day, they consume an average of 124 grams of sugar and 64 grams of fat. Homemade meals from normal foods only add up to 23 grams of sugar and 45 grams of fat. And the offspring does not have to do without chocolate biscuits or fries (from the oven)! Not to mention the extra portion of vitamins, minerals and secondary plant substances in a healthy, balanced family mix.

No extra sausage

Enjoyed every now and then, crunchy sticks and happy yogurt do no harm. As a rule, there should be no extra sausage for children, but the same food as for mom and dad - provided it is healthy. And if the little ones are allowed to help with the preparation, the natural yoghurt with self-chopped fruit will soon taste better than the artificial mixture from the cup.

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