This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008 at 11:14am and is filed under Food Safety, Parenting, Organic foods, Labels, Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
I recently read a news article called “Mom’s Diet Can Boost Baby’s Brain,” about how a mother’s diet affects her baby while in the womb. It quoted Dr. Alan Greene, who encourages organic foods for babies and young children.
In addition to consuming the appropriate amount of nutrients, Greene believes that there are certain organic foods that babies and young children should consume.
This includes milk, soy, baby cereal, fruits and vegetables, and baby food meat.
‘If I were going to pick only one time of life to eat organic, it would be from conception through age three,’ he writes. ‘Our bodies and our brains grow faster during this period than at any later time.’
I recently posted about organic formulas for babies and wondered if “organic” is truly better the better choice. Many say yes; Consumer Reports agrees with Greene’s statements, saying in a 2006 article,
Children may be at risk of higher exposure to the toxins found in nonorganic food because baby food is often made up of condensed fruits or vegetables, potentially concentrating pesticide residues. While at least one company says their nonorganic baby food has pesticide and heavy-metal levels below government-recommended levels, that may be cold comfort for parents wanting the healthiest options for their baby.
But the Mayo Clinic disagrees, kind of:
Organic baby food can limit your baby’s exposure to pesticides and other potential contaminants in foods. However, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) says organic foods are no safer or more nutritious than other foods. Also, organic baby food can be considerably more expensive than traditional baby food.
I suspect there is no “right” answer; it depends on what a mother feels comfortable giving to her baby and spending her money on. But the more knowledge she has about what she and her baby are eating (organic or non), the better.
June 10th, 2008 at 10:57am
It’s been said before that organic and healthy are two completely different things. Even when a product is labeled organic, it is important to check and make sure that it is not chock-full of sugar, especially for babies.