UK toddlers get nearly half their calories from ultra-processed foods

Children who ate the most ultra-processed foods as toddlers were more likely to continue eating them by age seven, the study found.

Toddlers in the United Kingdom get nearly half of their calories from ultra-processed foods that are tied to poor health later in life, a new analysis has found.
Ultra-processed foods are industrially produced products that tend to be higher in fat, sugar, and salt, such as ready-to-eat meals, cereals, yoghurts, biscuits, sausages, chips, and pre-sliced bread.
Eating more of these foods is associated with obesity, cardiovascular diseases, mental health issues, and cancer in adulthood.
For the new study, researchers from University College London asked parents to map their children’s diets over several days, and then analysed whether they were unprocessed or minimally processed foods such as milk or vegetables, processed ingredients like butter or oil, processed foods like cheese, or ultra-processed items with many additives.
They found that when children were nearly two years old, 47 per cent of their calories came from ultra-processed foods. That share rose to 59 per cent by the time they were seven.
The study included nearly 2,600 children and was published in the European Journal of Nutrition.
As far as ultra-processed foods went, toddlers mostly had flavoured yoghurts, high-fibre breakfast cereals, and whole grain breads, while seven-year-olds were mostly given puddings, sweet cereals, and white breads.
Not all highly processed items are unhealthy, but many are marketed as healthy choices despite having high levels of added sugar and salt, the researchers said.
“It’s not easy to feed children healthily in our current food environment,” Dr Rana Conway, the study’s lead author and a nutritionist at UCL, said in a statement.
“Highly processed foods are often cheaper than the foods parents would like to give their children, such as fresh fruit and vegetables,” Conway said.
The researchers divided toddlers into five groups based on their consumption of ultra-processed foods. At the lowest level, kids got 28 per cent of their calories from these sources, while at the highest level it was 69 per cent.
However, toddlers across all five groups ate more added sugars than the 5 per cent cap for calorie intake that is recommended by the UK government.
Reliance on ultra-processed foods during a child’s earliest years also persisted over time. Compared with kids who had the lowest levels, for example, children who ate the most ultra-processed foods as toddlers were 9.4 times more likely to have the highest consumption levels at age seven.
“Eating patterns in the early years are important, as they help set habits that can persist through childhood and into adulthood,” said Clare Llewellyn, another study author and an associate professor of obesity at UCL.
The researchers said new policies would be needed to reduce ultra-processed food intake among children, for example adding warning labels on food packaging and subsidies to help parents opt for healthier foods.
Notably, white and higher income people were overrepresented in the new study relative to the UK population overall.