Why you should avoid giving your baby salt and sugar
Most pediatricians advise against including additives in baby foods, especially salt and sugar.
Although it may not seem very important to you, the truth is that the diet that the baby follows during his first year of life is really important since it can mark the eating habits that he will follow over the years and in the future when he is an adult. That is why most pediatricians advise against including additives in baby foods, especially in relation to salt and sugar for at least the first year of the baby’s life.
Over the years, the amount of salt and sugar should be just right, as in excess, as you surely know, they are not healthy for the body. Here are five reasons why babies should not have salt or sugar in their meals and do it in a totally natural way.
Index
MODIFY THE NATURAL TASTE OF FOOD
Both salt and sugar are flavor enhancers so they tend to alter the natural flavor of the food itself. It is advisable for the baby to be able to savor the natural flavor of the food he eats during his first months of life. If you add salt or sugar to food, in the long run the baby will get used to the taste of food with additives and will not be able to perceive the natural flavors.
PROMOTES DIABETES
It is scientifically proven that taking sugar from a young age favors the development of a disease such as type 2 diabetes. That is why it is preferable to avoid giving sugar to your baby from a very young age, since in this way they are much less likely to develop diabetes in the future, unfortunately a very common disease among children.
DAMAGE THE KIDNEYS
One of the functions of the kidneys is to filter excess sodium from the body. Sodium is found in salt, so an excess of it can cause serious problems in the good health of the kidneys. The baby has an immature renal system since it has to be formed so if there is salt in the food, his kidneys have to work much harder and may suffer some kind of damage. In the long term, this fact can cause certain problems in the kid’s own kidney system.
MANY POSSIBILITIES OF SUFFERING FROM HYPERTENSION
Excess sodium in the blood can cause a person to develop hypertension. That is why if salt is introduced into the baby’s diet, it has a high chance of developing hypertension over the years. It has been shown that many adults are hypertensive due to the fact that as children they have eaten foods with too much salt.
THEY MAY BE OBESE OR OVERWEIGHT
It has been shown that the consumption of sugar in childhood can cause certain problems related to weight . Apart from sugar, salt itself can increase the chances of being overweight in the future. This is because salt increases both appetite and thirst and this leads to a significant increase in fluid retention in the body. To avoid this, nutritionists advise against including both salt and sugar in the baby’s diet.
As you have seen, there are many health problems that can be caused by introducing salt and sugar in the baby’s diet. Although these are long-term health problems, it is good to prevent them in time . Therefore, do not hesitate to prepare the baby’s food without any additives and that in this way it can taste the different foods in a totally natural way.
Dr. Tabriella Perivolaris, Sara's mother and fan of fashion, beauty, motherhood, among others, about the female universe. Since 2018 she has been working as a copywriter, always bringing to her articles a little of her experience and experience as a mother and woman.