Latest news with #pediatricnutrition
News.com.au
20 hours ago
- Health
- News.com.au
Leading pediatric nutritionist exposes food Health Star Rating system
A number of family favourite food items have been revealed to contain harmful additives and chemicals, covered up by the 'misleading' Health Star Rating (HSR) system. Pediatric nutritionist Mandy Sacher said foods advertised as healthy and marketed to children with a 4-star health rating or higher actually have ingredients linked to ADHD, gut damage, cancer and addictive eating. Under current HSR rules, products can receive high star ratings for adding isolated protein or synthetic fibre, regardless of overall ingredient quality or processing level, and there is no penalty for the presence of artificial additives, refined starches or emulsifiers. Ms Sacher said the public is 'flying blind' when it comes to deciding how to pick between so-called healthy foods. 'In my view, the Health Star Rating (HSR) is a ticking public health time bomb – it could one day be seen as the asbestos scandal of our food system,' she told 'It's misleading Australian families, especially parents, by giving ultra-processed foods a health halo. 'Products full of additives, synthetic fibres, emulsifiers, artificial sweeteners and industrial seed oils are scoring 4 or 5 stars, yet emerging evidence links these ingredients to ADHD, gut damage, insulin resistance, anxiety, depression and even cancer.' The pediatric nutritionist said these ingredients and additives are often found in many popular muesli bar products, including those which are rated three, four and five stars under the system. 'The system completely ignores the internationally recognised NOVA scale, which classifies foods based on their level of processing,' Ms Sacher said. 'These ultra-processed snacks are engineered to override satiety and promote over consumption, yet they're being marketed to kids with government endorsement. 'Parents trust the stars. But often, the higher the rating, the more processed the product. 'That's not just confusing – it's dangerous.' She said only 32 per cent of products carry the HSR rating. 'Even the government's own 2019 review flagged serious flaws: no independent watchdog, no penalties for additives, and no consistency,' she aid. 'Six years later, nothing has changed.' When asked whether the problem lies in how the rating is calculated, or how it's communicated, Ms Sacher simply replied: 'Both.' 'The HSR scores food based only on nutrients like sugar, salt and added fibre, but it ignores how processed the food is, and what it's made from,' she said. 'Stars appear on the front of packs as a government-endorsed health symbol. Parents assume a 4-star snack is a good choice – but those stars can be manipulated by adding synthetic fibre or lab-made vitamins, even if the product is ultra-processed. 'Food tech is advancing rapidly, but the HSR hasn't been updated in over a decade, since 2014 and it doesn't account for processing, it doesn't penalise additives. 'It allows snacks made in labs to appear 'healthy' based on technical nutrient scores.' Ms Sacher believes the system rewards 'nutrient manipulation, not food integrity', with a rising number of illnesses, such as hypertension, anxiety and depression, fatty liver, and type two diabetes appearing in young children. 'These foods may disrupt gut health, hijack appetite, impair mood, and promote inflammation,' she said. 'In my opinion, if we keep rewarding fake food and penalising real food, we're not just misleading consumers – we're fuelling a preventable health crisis. '(The HSR System) needs a full reset. If 100 per cent walnuts can't get 5 stars, but kids' lollies can, we need to admit the system is broken.' The HSR system assigns packaged foods and beverages a rating based on the overall nutritional value of the product, a Department of Health, Disability and Ageing spokesperson told 'The system is designed to provide shoppers a quick, easy, and standardised way to compare similar packaged foods. The more stars, the healthier the choice,' the spokesperson said. 'For example, you can compare the HSR of a yoghurt to another yoghurt, but you should not compare the HSR of a yoghurt to a bag of chips. 'The number of stars a packaged food or beverage product displays is determined by using a strict algorithm called the HSR Calculator … developed in consultation with Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) and other technical and nutrition experts.' The spokesperson said the Calculator balances positive nutrients with nutrients associated with risk factors for chronic disease, with the HSR for most products based on: total energy (kilojoules), saturated fat, sodium (salt) and total sugar content. 'Consuming too much of these is linked to overweight and obesity, some cancers, heart disease and type 2 diabetes. 'A high HSR does not mean that the food or beverage provides all of the essential nutrients that are required for a balanced and healthy diet or that the product should be eaten in large quantities, or often,' the spokesperson said. 'The HSR system does not take into consideration other real, claimed or potential health effects of particular ingredients, additives, products or processing methods,' they said. 'Neither does it consider other important nutrients. 'In Australia, food additives are approved only if it can be shown no harmful effects are likely to result from their use.' A spokesperson for Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) said any additives must undergo a safety assessment before being permitted for use in food sold. 'Standard 1.3.1 of the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code governs the use of food additives, such as preservatives, colours and emulsifiers,' they told 'These additives must comply with the safety limits specified in Schedule 15 and be clearly labelled on food products to enable consumers to make informed purchases. 'Schedule 15 also details which additives are permitted, the types of food they can be used in, and the maximum amounts allowed to ensure safe and appropriate use across different food categories.' While the body is responsible for the development and maintenance the Code, which sets out the requirements for food produced or imported for sale to ensure a safe food supply for consumers, it does not enforce them.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
How and when to start solid foods: Here's what to know
Purees or finger foods, old school or new wave – it's hard to know the 'right' answer when it comes to transitioning your baby to solid foods. But a new book published by the American Academy of Pediatrics aims to provide sound science and practical advice to make that decision less stressful for parents. Cinthia Scott, a pediatric registered dietitian and lactation consultant, is one of the authors of 'Baby Leads the Way: An Evidence-Based Guide to Introducing Solid Foods' and she is part of the team behind 101 Before One, an evidence-based, baby-led weaning program. She said the approach grew out of a desire to offer parents straightforward information grounded in research. 'We wanted a resource that parents wouldn't have to question,' she said. 'They would know that it is authoritative, but it's also evidence based. It's both of those things together. When I started my son on solids – he's 6 now – as a dietitian, I was blown away that healthcare professionals were giving me advice that I was questioning. It started with me walking through that myself and thinking we need to do better.' Scott learned that much of the prevailing advice about feeding existed not because of evidence, but because it has been common for so long that it was just accepted as the right thing to do. 'That's when our team at 101 Before One got together,' she said. 'We have a pediatric allergist, a pediatrician, a speech language pathologist, and then we have a chef too. I'm the dietitian and I'm an IBCLC (International Board Certified Lactation Consultant). We wanted to come from all facets. We wanted a full scope of what's evidence-based that fits into all these niches.' The 101 Before One program recommends 101 foods for baby to try from 6-12 months of age, with meal plans and a wide variety of tips and helps for parents. (Some are free and some are available for purchase.) The book offers easy to follow, clear tips on each aspect of starting solids, along with photos of what a meal might look like when served for an adult and with the same dishes for a baby. Scott said the information is designed to help parents prepare well in advance of those early days of solid foods. 'It's way easier than getting to 6 months and being like, 'oh my goodness, I'm so nervous, I'm overwhelmed.' We really, really, really push to educate yourself on evidence-based practices prior to starting,' she said. Though it can feel daunting to guide a baby to solids, Scott said the benefits of doing it in a healthy way can be substantial. 'Just like adults, each child is going to have a different nutritional need, they're each going to need different calories per day based on their age and height,' Scott said. 'We see all these fun charts on social media of how many calories your child should get when they're 6,7, 8 months old, but that's not evidence-based, because every kid and every person is different. They're intuitive eaters at birth, that's how they know how much milk to consume. As we start solids, we offer them small portions to avoid overwhelming them – a spoonful or two of purees, if you're doing purees, or one or two finger foods, if you're doing finger foods. And then if they eat that whole portion and they're still showing hunger cues, then we give them more and we follow their lead. I think parents really want a set portion amount, but it's just not realistic, and it can also set us up for our expectations being way higher than our children's actual nutrient needs, and then us adding more stress or pressure than there needs to be.' Scott said easing the stress around feeding can be part of lifelong good habits and hopefully, a healthy relationship with food. 'We're really hoping that as more people adopt this method of feeding, we are going to see less eating disorders in young children, because they're just expected to follow their own cues and eat until they're full and honor those cues, versus being told or forced to finish a baby food jar or told they can't get up from the table until they eat a plate of food that might be way too big for them,' she said. 'We're really hoping that in our generation, we are going to see less challenges with eating, whether that's binge eating or emotional eating or overeating. We're really hoping that we're raising more kids that are in tune with their body and have a more healthy relationship with food.' 'We really want to just incorporate baby into the meals we're already consuming, as long as they're appropriate foods,' Scott said. 'We want to teach parents how to modify meals to make them baby safe, whether that's cutting a food in a different way, leaving the salt or the added sugar off of baby's portion, maybe mashing beans instead of serving them whole – simple ways that we're bringing baby to the table for a family meal and they are eating the same thing as us, so that there is no transition period.' This approach avoids the transitions from thin purees to finger foods to family meals and the challenges that can come with that. 'We want it to be a fluid, natural progression,' Scott said. Coming up: Learn more from Scott on addressing – and hopefully avoiding – food allergies in children. 'Baby Leads the Way: An Evidence-Based Guide to Introducing Solid Foods' by Krupa Playforth, Cinthia Scott, Manisha Relan, Catherine Callahan and Julie Laux is published by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Learn more at Learn more about 101 Before One at How to (subtly) kick your almost-grown kid out of the house Money talks: Teach your kids about saving and spending On the Shelf: Books for kids who love mom, dinosaurs and houseplants – because reading is for everyone Your guide to things to do in Asheville and WNC this week This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Baby Leads the Way: New guide helps with transition to solid foods
