Kids’ snacks a health hazard | Northern Rivers News | Local News in Northern Rivers

LENNOX HEAD mum Heidi Williams only feeds her three-year-old son, Ash, healthy and natural foods.

“We eat lots of unrefined, natural foods,” she said. “Instead of packaged snacks we give Ash fresh fruit and nuts, which he loves.

“I wouldn’t buy him any of those packaged snacks because they are full of sugar.

“I also want to avoid artificial flavours, colours and preservatives.

“When I do give Ash sugar, he goes absolutely nuts within 20 minutes. So I know feeding him natural foods really makes a difference.”

Ms Williams also said food companies needed to make their labelseasier to understand.

“When I talk to my friends about it they say they are really confused by food labels,” she said.

“Parents want to be able to give their kids a good start in life.”

Leading nutritionist Dr Rosemary Stanton, and health advocacy group The Parents Jury, yesterday slammed foods companies for ‘spinning the truth about their products to make profit at the expense of our kids’ health’.

Dr Stanton said snacks such as Kellogg’s LCMs, Nature’s Way chocolate Kids Smart Bars, and Nestle’s MILO bars were amongst the worst offenders.

“This product (LCMs) should not be recommended as a regular lunch box food,” she said. “It has very little dietary fibre and contains a harmful level of saturated fat.”

Kids Smart Bars have more than 20 ingredients listed on the label, and Dr Stanton said this showed the company was trying to ‘make up for a fundamental lack of nutrition’.

Mum of six and member of The Parents Jury, Shannon Anastasio, said parents were ‘fed up’ with the ‘abundance of misleading information’.

“Busy shoppers don’t have time to read the fine print or interpret nutrient percentages on every packet in their trolley,” she said.

The Parents Jury wants the Federal Government to enforce a ‘front-of-pack’ food labelling system which colour codes levels of fat, saturated fat, sugar and sodium.