6 false beliefs about infant nutrition that we continue to swallow today

There is more information at our disposal than ever, although the truth is that the marketing and advertising of certain products does not help, nor does the fact of having less and less time to cook at home. Some myths or false beliefs about food that are still among us deserve special mention. And this is what we are going to focus on today, in dismantling them with the help of great dietitians-nutritionists. Here we go.

1.Breakfast is the most important meal of the day

This is one of the great myths about food. It is often said that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, however, nutritionist Carlos Ríos, author of the Realfooding movement and author of the book ‘Eat real food’, makes it very clear in his book: “A bad breakfast is worse than do not eat breakfast, because at the health level There is no convincing evidence that indicates that you have to eat large meals at one time or another of the day, and yet there is a lot of evidence on how the unhealthy foods we often eat for breakfast affect our health.”

The truth is that breakfast is one of the worst intakes our children make during the day. Yes, because the products traditionally associated with breakfast have a huge amount of sugar, as is the case, for example, with cookies or cereals.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends not consuming more than 20-25 grams of sugar per day, and already at breakfast, in many homes, this amount is exceeded. Let’s see it with an example: 2 teaspoons of cocoa powder contain 7 grams of sugar. Let us imagine that these children not only drink a glass of cocoa, but usually accompany it with cereals or biscuits (a 40-g serving of biscuits contains 8.4 g of sugar). Also, in how many households is breakfast not complemented with a processed juice? And a brick individual of 200 ml contains 9.6 gr of sugar.

Let’s do the sum: 7 gr of Cola Cao + 8.4 of the cookies + 9.6 of the packaged juice = 25 grams of sugar. We have already reached the limit and it is not even 9 in the morning!

To be considered the “most important” food, it is the one that our children do worst from a nutritional point of view. Therefore, either we improve it, or we’d better eliminate it.

2. Children are born hating broccoli and loving macaroni

Another widespread belief is the one that presupposes that there is food for children and food for adults. Proof of this is that when we go to eat at a restaurant there is usually a space on the menu reserved exclusively for children. What kind of food do we usually find there? Pasta, pizza, hamburgers, fried…

Well, we can all more or less agree that children like pizza better than broccoli, what we should ask ourselves is why.

The nutritionist Julio Basulto, author, among others, of the book ‘It makes me a ball’ asks us this question for us to reflect on: “Have you thought that your child does not eat fruit because his palate has become accustomed to the powerful flavor of shakes, breakfast cereals, cookies, buns?

Disseminator Catherine L’Ecuyer also reflected on this at one of our events: “A study carried out in 2011 consisted of giving sugary soft drinks to a group of people for a month. Once the study was completed, they realized that these people had more difficulty perceiving flavors, because they had been exposed to a very high dose of sugar. Which explains why when we bring the sugary bun or the snack sweets to the children, or when we add sugar or salt to the porridge to help them eat better, the children later have such a hard time eating an apple, some spinach or some chickpeas. Taste is overstimulated, lowers sensitivity, the threshold of feeling rises and that child needs more and more artificial stimuli to be able to perceive the qualities of food”.

Therefore, it is not that our son is born hating broccoli, it is that we have hyperstimulated his palate with products with very powerful artificial flavors, which means that when we give him an apple, it does not taste like anything.

3. Children have to eat everything

Julio Basulto usually says that “eating well is to stop eating badly”. And this that a priori may seem obvious, it is not so much. Eating healthily is not only getting all the nutrients we need from the right amount of food, but also avoid eating unhealthy foods or minimize them.

There are many foods that we can do without and many others that, without a doubt, we must do without, such as the majority of ultra-processed foods, sugary drinks and soft drinks, industrial pastries and confectionery, and pre-cooked dishes.

Therefore, it is absolutely false that you have to eat everything. No, you should not eat what is not healthy. Another thing is that we eat it very occasionally, then it can be harmless, but the recipe for a healthy diet is not to eat everything.

4. My child’s brain needs sugar

For many years the belief has spread, especially applied among the little ones, that it is necessary for breakfast to contain foods “rich in sugar” to perform better in the morning. That is why many of the breakfasts that we give to the little ones are made up of pastries, cookies, honey, table sugar, refined flour, etc… thinking that with a good dose of sugar in the morning, they will face the day with more energy.

The brain is responsible for allowing our body to function, and for it to perform efficiently, and for this it consumes glucose as an energy source. However, sugar and glucose are not the same thing, and not all sugars contribute in the same way.

Where can we extract glucose from? of foods rich in complex carbohydrates such as tubers, legumes, and whole grains, as well as the sugar found naturally in fruits, vegetables, and vegetables.

5. You have to finish all the food on the plate

“Can someone here tell me how hungry I am? Nobody, right? Well, it seems that we do know how hungry our children are. We tell them that they have to finish all the food on their plate, as if we know their appetite. It is incredible how during lactation children feed on demand, but when they start eating other types of food, we know how hungry they are”. With this argument, chef Juan Llorca began a wonderful presentation at one of our events. And with it, he invited us to reflect on how unwise it is to force our children to eat a certain amount.

The dietitian-nutritionist Aitor Sánchez, author of the book ‘What do I give him to eat’, reminds us that “We, adults, must worry about quality, and let the child decide the quantity. If we follow a logical scheme, where we offer the child healthy foods that include fruits, vegetables, legumes, proteins… we can let the child choose the amount they want to eat”.

In fact, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) “Children’s appetites are erratic and unpredictable. It adapts to the child’s growth, and only the child’s appetite can be used as a marker of their caloric needs.” The task of mothers and fathers is, therefore, to make sure that what we offer our children is healthy. Only they can take care of the quantity.

6. Unhealthy foods must be banned

For Julio Basulto, prohibiting should never be the solution to prevent our children from consuming unhealthy food. “It’s not about banning, since banning is arousing desire. It’s about not being at home, so no one will have to ban them.”

As Jules says, The key to not consuming ultra-processed foods on a daily basis is not buying them, not having them at home. Because if they share space with real food in the end they are designed for them to win. In this sense, Carlos Ríos insists: “If I arrive hungry and I have muffins and bananas in the pantry, I will surely choose the muffin, because it is much tastier due to the amount of highly addictive additives it contains. It does not mean that we can never eat them, no, because that is utopian and unnecessary. It does not mean that 1, 2 or even 3 times a month an ultra-processed dessert falls, nothing happens. The key is to enjoy real food. If you enjoy it, you will not miss the other. And in the case of children, it requires dedication, effort and education.”

Banishing all these myths is vital to start feeding our children better, a task that we should take very seriously, because as Julio Basulto says: “The goal is not for my children to eat well, the goal is to make my children want to eat well.