«Mum, why don't you buy this too?»

Children's products are sweet and greasy - because children love them. But they are advertised as healthy so that parents will buy them.

It's Saturday evening, parents and children have made themselves comfortable on the sofa and are looking forward to watching a film together. Before the film and during the breaks, the family is treated to adverts. Children are specifically targeted and the reactions are not long in coming: «Mum, are you finally going to buy that?» - «Lisa always has this, why not us?» - «That would finally be a nice breakfast that I would eat too!» Children can react to children's advertising and children's products in this or similar ways. This doesn't exactly make it easier for parents to choose products.

One chocolate drink and one fruit quark per day

Supermarket shelves are full of so-called children's products. They are brightly coloured and advertise with cartoon characters and messages such as: «It's healthy for your child», «Contains lots of milk for strong bones». The marketing for these children's products is very skilfully chosen and appeals to both parents and children. The slogans promoting the product as healthy ensure that you as parents are convinced, while the children are won over with playful shapes and colours. The high sugar content ensures that the food tastes good to almost all children - because the preference for sweets is innate.

Unfortunately, many of the products aimed specifically at children only boast a high sugar and fat content, while valuable nutrients - contrary to what is promised in adverts - fall by the wayside. The high sugar and fat content means that children get used to the strong sweetness and perceive «normally» sweetened or unsweetened foods as bland.

A maximum of 10 per cent of the daily energy intake should consist of sugar. With an average intake of 2000 calories, this means a maximum of 50 grams of sugar per day. This amount is almost reached with a sweetened fruit quark of about 100 grams (15 grams of sugar) and a chocolate drink of about 3 decilitres (30 grams). Depending on the energy requirement, the recommended amount of sugar is adjusted upwards or downwards. The sugar recommendation is therefore reached very quickly even with foods advertised as healthy - without the child having eaten a piece of chocolate or a jelly baby.

Children's foods are snacks or sweets

The bottom line is that most children's foods are categorised as sweets or salty snacks. Knowing this should help you as parents to categorise the foods. Sweets and snacks are allowed, but should remain an exception and therefore something special. A dessert after a balanced lunch or a snack while watching TV with the whole family can be an opportunity to enjoy children's products. Prohibitions do not alleviate the craving - on the contrary, they make it even stronger and your children will not stop craving it until they can satisfy it.
Combining children's products and unsweetened products can be a way of making the diet a little more balanced.
Two tips:

  • Add natural yoghurt to the children's quark or mix natural quark with pureed seasonal fruit and sweeten with a little honey.
  • Mix rolled oats with children's breakfast cereals or roast rolled oats with nuts and honey, add a little cocoa powder.

However, children's foods are not necessary for your child's optimal development. Even if some of these products are advertised as being particularly rich in vitamins, these vitamins often do not come on their own, but are accompanied by a lot of sugar and fat. There is also the danger that children are taught by children's products that they can cover their vitamin requirements with them and no longer associate them with natural products such as fruit and vegetables.
It is therefore better to offer your children fruit and vegetables in different consistencies, sometimes pureed, sometimes finely chopped, sometimes grated or, in summer, pureed and served frozen as ice cream. The fruit purees that are popular with children for spooning or slurping are usually without added sugar. However, these products are often very concentrated and therefore contain more sugar than a whole handful of fresh fruit. However, they can be an alternative in exceptional cases.

How do I recognise a high-sugar food?

On the list of ingredients, the ingredients that are contained in the largest quantities are listed first. If sugar appears as one of the first ingredients, you can assume that this product contains an above-average amount of sugar. Caution: The word sugar is often hidden behind the following terms (list is not exhaustive):

  • Traubenzucker
  • Saccharose
  • Dextrose
  • Glukosesirup
  • Gerstenmalzextrakt
  • Fruktose
  • Maltose
Vera Kessens ist BSc Ernährungsberaterin SVDE bei Betty Bossi AG.
Vera Kessens is a BSc nutrition counsellor SVDE at Betty Bossi AG.

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