Many ‘healthy’ packaged foods bad for children: study

ALMOST two-thirds of the so-called “healthy” packaged food items marketed to families are actually bad for children, a new study has found.

News .Story on Packaged supermarket foods are unhealthy. Rachel McIntosh and kids Zara aged 6 and Vivienne aged 4 with a whole pile of packaged foods - cereal, yoghurt, biscuits, pasta etc. The idea is that it's not a whole lot of crappy food, but the sort of food people think is going to be healthy but in fact isn't..Picture :Andrew Tauber

ALMOST two-thirds of the so-called “healthy” packaged food items marketed to families are actually bad for children, a new study has found.

Researchers assessed 156 popular supermarket products and found 62 per cent were not healthy by Food Standards guidelines — despite the fact many of these products are promoted as a healthy or “healthier” choice.

Foods that are obviously unhealthy — such as lollies and cakes — were excluded from the study, one of the biggest of its kind conducted in Australia.

Cereal-based products were most often found to be less beneficial, while dairy products were likely to be more beneficial.

“The ever-increasing number of food products available on supermarket shelves is making it difficult for consumers to discern the healthier options,” lead researcher Nina Meloncelli said.

“This is made even more difficult when companies use nutrition content claims on packaged food products.

“The outcomes of the present study indicate that in Australian supermarkets, there is an abundance of food products marketed towards children that may not be easily identifiable as discretionary choices.”

Many items analysed are specifically marketed to parents and children, with packages as “lunchbox choices” or “growing bodies”, as well as with cartoon images, TV or movie tie-ins, and unusual shapes or flavours.

Dietitian Amanda Clark, author of The Australian Healthy Snack Bible, urged parents not to rely on buzzwords on the front of packs.

“They promote one benefit but ignore the overall view,” she said.

“It’s better to look closely at the food ingredient panel, even though it can be hard to read quickly,” she said.

Williamstown mother of three Rachel McIntosh, 39, tries to make healthy food choices for her family.

“I am not over-zealous, I am not anti-sugar or carbs,” she said. “But I don’t give kids muesli bars in their lunch boxes as I know they’re bad for them.

“If they have anything as a treat it’s more likely to be a homemade piece of cake or biscuits.”

She said her children — ­Archie, 9, Zara, 6, and Vivienne, 4 — did snack on kids’ yoghurts.

“The kids would only have them after dinner as a treat as I know they’re high in sugar,” she said.

The research is published in the Nutrition and ­Dietetics journal.

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