Nutrition

What’s in that jar of baby food?

While added salt and sugar is no longer present in jarred baby foods, many contain unnecessary thickeners and binders such as corn starch, white flour and tapioca. These ingredients may not be bad to eat; however, they also don’t provide any nutritional value to your baby. The heating process in mass produced foods depletes a great deal of the dietary worth of the food inside the jar. Furthermore, jarred baby food bears no relation to the taste of real food. Babies exposed to processed foods get used to the unappealing, bland tastes and then have difficulty transitioning to real food.

A quick Google™ search reveals that in the very recent past a leading jarred baby food was found to include such objects as glass, sticks, plastic, mold, and spiders. As well, a single flavor of another popular organic jarred baby food was also found to be contaminated and had to be recalled.

Your baby is not developed enough to spit out foreign objects or tell you that something tastes odd. He or she must rely on you. When you make your own food, you are guaranteed of purity and freshness. Plus, when you use only organic ingredients, you are not only giving him or her better tasting food; you are adding another level of protection for your little one. From a cost perspective, organic produce is more expensive to buy, however, the higher the quality of the food, the less of it your baby will need to feel satisfied.

Why use organic ingredients?

We know through recent studies that when it comes to chemical exposure, children are not miniature adults. Children’s developing bodies are more vulnerable to toxic harm and chemical exposure during infancy can be dramatically more harmful than exposure later in life.

A recent significant study on toxic exposure* divided a number of pre-school age children into two groups—21 who ate mostly conventional foods and 18 who ate mostly organic foods. All urine for 24 hours was collected from each child. Children who ate conventional diets had pesticide concentrations up to nine times greater than the children who ate organic! Their levels indicated an exposure that exceeded safe limits set by the EPA. Conversely, those children who ate organic foods were well within the EPA levels deemed to cause negligible risk.

There is no question that pesticides and toxic chemicals from our environment are getting into our developing children’s bodies through the foods that they eat. Pesticides are poisons. Research has shown that when given to animals in high doses, these contaminates can affect the nervous system and cause cancers. By reducing toxic exposure, organic products can help us to raise healthy, strong children. Using homemade food gives you ultimate control over what your baby eats.

I belonged to an organic farm food co-op when Ashley
was an infant. I was immersing my daughter in my
mission to feed her well.

*University of Washington Study, October 2002: Organophosphorus pesticide exposure of urban and suburban preschool children with organic and conventional diets. For more information, visit drgreene.com