How Do Commercial Children’s Foods Influence Their Growth and Development? A Map of Commercially Available Children’s Foods in Honduras

Abstract

Background: The premature consumption of processed foods with high sugar and sodium content over the course of life has been associated with an increased risk of suffering from chronic diseases starting in adolescence or early adulthood. Methods: There was an examination of the nutritional labelling of processed products for young children (n = 140) available in the Honduran market to evaluate their nutritional quality with regard to sodium and sugar content, pursuant to various international recommendations. Results: 54% of the products evaluated derive more than 20% of their calories from sugar. The categories that to a large degree exceed the recommended sugar content range are fruit drinks (80%) and dessert purees (65%). The average price per product serving is lower than one US dollar ($0.81). 46% and 6% of the products place sugar and salt, respectively, among the first five positions in their ingredient lists. Conclusions: Processed foods for infants and young children generally exceed the recommended sugar content, but due to their low cost and easy access, they are displacing traditional food consumption, contributing to increasing childhood obesity and chronic disease in the early stages of life.

Are Functional Foods Marketed in Honduras a Healthy Option?

“…Due to their abundant content of phenolic compounds, sweetened juices made from blueberries, grapes, strawberries, almonds, soybeans and rice reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases [26] [38], however, the excess of sugar in these beverages has been widely reported in processed products where more than 95% exceeded this recommendation; a finding similar to that of the present study has found 93% of sweetened juices high in sugar [19] [27] [28]. Many of these products claim to be sugar-free and contain one or more non-caloric sweeteners such as acesulfame K and sucralose in 22% of the juices in the sample.…”

“…Honduras does not have previous studies on the composition or categorization of PFF, however, studies have been conducted on the content of critical nutrients in conventional processed foods, obtaining similar results [19] [27] [28],…”

Maternal Nutrition Status and Human Milk Composition of DHA and AA Fatty Acids in Breastfeeding Honduran Women

“…The breast milk of all mothers has excellent nutritional and immunological value in addition to certain biological benefits unique to the babies [12,14,30]. Multiple studies show that BF has a metabolic programming effect that decreases the risk of developing noncommunicable and inflammatory diseases [10,47,48] such as obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure in adulthood, due to their content of hormones involved in the regulation of energy balance and appetite [31,33,49,50].Despite these and other benefits that justify the protection and promotion of BF [30,37], 44% of the mothers from the current study were not practicing EBF, and their babies were not more than two months old (average 41 days).…”

“…Numerous studies have shown that frequent consumption of seafood such as fatty fish and shellfish improves the concentration of EFA and particularly the concentration of DHA [29,34] despite the fact that there is a disparity in access to these foods conditioned by physical accessibility and socioeconomic status [35]. In addition, the increase in the consumption of highly processed foods [21,36,37] made from refined oils [5,27], have displaced the consumption of healthy meats, fish and fats [21], causing an imbalance in the ratio of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids in breast milk [5,22].…”