Safe, sustainable, accessible nutrition for babies, children and teens
Access to healthy diets is essential for young people's health and lives. This World Food Day, we highlight research that supports nutritional health for babies, children and teenagers worldwide.
Malnutrition includes undernutrition, inadequate vitamins or minerals, overweight, and resulting diet-related noncommunicable diseases.
Each has consequences for all aspects of children’s health and well-being: physical, mental and social.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) reported that globally in 2022, over 230 million children under 5 were estimated to experience the physical effects of malnutrition.
It says “the developmental, economic, social and medical impacts of the global burden of malnutrition are serious and lasting, for individuals and their families, for communities and for countries.”
Nutrition in infancy
In recent years, the WHO found that most baby food sold in Europe didn’t suit babies' nutritional needs.
To address the issues, the WHO commissioned a group of researchers to investigate and create solutions for policy, industry and individuals.
The group includes Dr Diane Threapleton and Professor Janet Cade (School of Food Science and Nutrition), Dr Çiğdem Bozkır (Inonu University, Türkiye), Dr Kubra Esin and Ali Morpeth (RNutr).
Through the WHO’s Collaborating Centre in Nutritional Epidemiology at the University of Leeds, they developed a Nutrient and Promotion Profile Model for baby food.
This assesses the quality of baby food and how truthful and appropriate its marketing is.
They found that sweet snacks dominate the market. Also, many products are marketed as suitable from 4 months, which contradicts the WHO’s recommendation to introduce food from 6 months.
Many products appear healthier than they are.
The researchers contributed to the WHO’s report (PDF), which outlines their concerns and recommends solutions for European legislation, such as:
- No addition of free sugars and sweeteners in baby food
- Confectionary and sweetened products should not be marketed
- Minimum and maximum quantities of energy, sodium, fat and protein
- Clearer marketing and labelling.
Supporting caregivers
As well as legislation, caregiver choices have a big impact on the quality of infant diets.
These choices are affected by their age, education, beliefs, product price, convenience and marketing.
The cost-of-living crisis has highlighted inequalities, with cheaper foods being poorer in quality.
The most deprived fifth of the population would need to spend 50% of their disposable income on food to achieve the government-recommended healthy diet.
In a new project funded by WHICH?, Diane and Ali will explore the quality, sustainability and accessibility of commercial foods for infants and young children, focusing on low-income families.
They will work with caregivers to understand the motivations and challenges behind their choices. Their findings will contribute to a policy response to the government and to outreach with the public.
Nutrition at school
Children spend most of their days at school. Understanding their food choices in the school food environment is key to supporting their health.
In collaboration with regional, national and international partners, Dr Hannah Ensaff researches what children and adolescents eat at school and how they select their school lunches.
Investigating food choice in the school environment and knowing about the factors that affect what is selected, will enable Dr Ensaff and colleagues to create interventions that support children and caregivers to make more nutritious and sustainable food choices.
Adolescent nutrition across the world
Researchers in the School of Food Science and Nutrition work around the world to understand the global picture of health and nutrition challenges.
Xiaomian Tan, Dr Pui Yee Tan, Somphos Vicheth Som, Professor Bernadette Moore and Professor Yun Yun Gong collaborated with researchers from the National Institute of Nutrition in Vietnam to assess the nutritional status of female adolescents in Vietnam.
Despite the importance of nutrition to the health of adolescents and their future adult life, including potential children, there had been little research for this demographic.
The research found a “double burden of malnutrition,” meaning a steep rise in overweight co-existing with undernutrition, including micronutrient deficiencies, in adolescent girls in Vietnam.
Professor Bernadette Moore said: “Often females are more susceptible to discriminative cultural, social, and gender norms.
“These discriminatory norms manifest in increased poverty, illiteracy, inequality, and early marriage, which individually and collectively increase the risk of MNDs in female adolescents globally, particularly in marginalised communities.”
The research team advocates for tailored interventions to improve outcomes for each individual issue. They will complete a similar study in Malaysia.
